(BLACK PR WIRE) According to recent information posted in The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education (JBHE) a four-year college degree not only increases the earning potential of black Americans but almost completely closes the economic gap between black and white citizens who are equally credentialed. Government figures from the Census Bureau show that blacks gain a vastly different value from a four-year college degree when compared with varying levels of educational achievement. African Americans with an associate’s degree or two year community college degree improve their incomes by only 41% over blacks with only a high school diploma. Yet African Americans with a bachelor’s degree, or four-year college degree, improve their incomes by 99.5% over that of blacks with high school diplomas alone!

Another interesting development in the progress of African Americans reveals an astonishing gender gap as a progress report on the status of black Americans in higher education reveals that black women are now earning college degrees at twice the rate of their black male counterparts. In fact, the number of black women earning bachelor’s degrees has increased by 55% since the 1970’s compared with an increase of only 20% in black males. Even more extraordinary are the statistics on black women in the areas of law and medicine with the number of degree earners climbing 219% since the 1970’s while only increasing 5% in black males. Surprising as these numbers seem, the exciting and continuous positive rise in educated African Americans within our nation sets great things in motion, fueling perpetual progress in a quickly changing world.