Okla. Stat. tit. 74, § 74-8101: Legislative findings and declarations

A. The Oklahoma State Legislature hereby finds and declares

that:

1. Statistical studies chronicling the status of African-

American males in American society reveal startling and disturbing

conditions and trends;

2. By every indicia measuring achievement, success and quality

of life in American society, African-American males are facing a

prodigious struggle for survival while fighting formidable

opponents;

3. African-American males make up only three and two-tenths

percent (3.2%) of the population of Oklahoma, but are victims of

twenty-one and eight-tenths percent (21.8%) of the state's homicides

and comprise twenty-one and five-tenths percent (21.5%) of all

persons under the control of the State Department of Corrections;

4. National statistics indicate that one of every twenty-two

African-American males will die as a result of homicide and that one

of every six African-American males will be arrested by the age of

nineteen years;

5. African-American males make up only three percent (3%) of

Oklahoma's total college and university enrollment;

6. African-American males suffer from more debilitating health

problems, a higher death rate and a lower life expectancy than males

in other ethnic and racial groups;

7. Between the years 1973 and 1988, the average real annual

income for African-American males in the United States between the

ages of twenty and twenty-four years fell by more than fifty percent

(50%); and

8. There is no statewide repository of data available on the

status of African-American males.