Today there are many single women over the age of thirty. The 2000 Census Bureau recorded that 2,219,489 women between the ages of 30 and 34 have never married.

The vast majority of single black women make up 60 percent of all unmarried women. By the age of 30, a mere 45 percent of black women have married, compared to 80 percent of white women.

Such disproportionate statistics have led to many hypotheses as to why large proportions of the African American female population are single. Social psychologist and author of "Black and Single", Larry Davis explains the "black romantic market" in the article, "The State of Our Union: Black Love and Marriage, 2004", on Africana.com.

Davis believes that social factors such as black male imprisonment and interracial relationships leave black women outnumbering black men 2 to 1. Within the same article, therapist and radio personality Audrey B. Chapman disputes Mr. Davis' figures. It is her belief that the proportions are closer to 4 to1 or 6 to 1.

"I figured that as I made more money and got the education that's required to get a good job, that that would automatically make it easier for me to find someone," said Lana Coleman, a Pasadena Calif., attorney, in the 2003 Newsweek article, "Black Gender Gap". "But it's really been the opposite." Ms. Coleman's sentiments are reflective of other self-reliant and professional black women.

The chances of a black woman finding a single, 33 - 39-year-old, heterosexual, college educated, successful African American male in a 1 percent population is about .16 percent. The 1 percent includes those men in cities and their surrounding suburbs with large urban populations, such as Chicago, Atlanta, Washington, D.C., New York, Oakland, and Detroit.

Essence magazine's advice columnist, Gwen Grant, stated in the Savannah Morning News, 2002, that educated black women should expand their selection to dating outside their race. If not, they will continue to have limited options.

The most extraordinary statistic is that only 22 percent of an African American woman's life span will be spent in marriage.

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Won't Be Denied, a 227-page novel, shines a light into an obsessed, single African American female. In the well-crafted suspense novel, author C.F. Jackson, graduate from Georgia Southern University with a BS degree in Criminal Justice, lays out the story in two sentences: Love won't be denied. Maré comes to value it more than life. The story is set in Atlanta, Georgia. It is an easy, suspenseful read. The character-driven plot is a page-turner.

For more information, or to purchase Won't Be Denied (ISBN 0-9762230-0-7), contact the publisher, Organized Thoughts Publishing: Post Office Box 920622, Norcross, GA 30010 or http://www.cfjackson.us. Bookstores and libraries in the U.S. can order Won't Be Denied through Baker & Taylor database.

© 2005 by Afro Staff