Mayor Lee P. Brown announced that BET.com has named Houston as the #2 city in the country for African American families. BET.com is the website of BET, Inc., the Viacom, Inc. subsidiary. Columbus, Ohio led the list of 22 cities cited by the BET study.

“I’m very pleased to add this honor to that received last year from Black Enterprise magazine,” said Mayor Brown. “Houston is a blend of dynamic businesses, a multi-cultural population and a frontier spirit. We have no ethnic majority.” Brown added, “We take pride in our rich diversity, as well as in our achievements in the many areas considered by the BET.com study.
BET’s stated, “Led by Mayor Lee P. Brown, Houston has a relatively low crime rate compared to others on the list. And it’s among the cities with the lowest rates of death for Black infants. The percentage of children in single parent, typically fatherless households, 26 percent, is nearly half that of Cleveland, Detroit, Atlanta and St. Louis. Unemployment for Houston’s quarter million African-American residents, who make up 25 percent of the city’s population, averaged 6.2 percent in 2000, compared to 10.9 percent in Chicago. Black median income: $39,019. Thirty-three percent have incomes above $50,000. Interesting fact: Newsweek magazine ranked Houston second in its list of ‘Cities Where Employment Will Grow Fastest’ through 2025.”
For six months, BET.com compiled data on African-Americans in U.S. cities with the largest Black populations.

The data used in its final report, includes infant mortality, high school graduation, median income, home ownership, unemployment and business ownership. Rate of poverty and AIDS infection, teen pregnancy, violent and property crimes, and children in single parent, typically fatherless households for the general population of each city were also collected.
The BET ranking is not the first such honor for Houston. The July 2001 issue of Black Enterprise magazine named Houston as America’s best city for African Americans in the magazine’s interactive readers’ choice survey, where cities were evaluated on 21 quality of life factors. BET.com’s Best Cities for African American Families:

1. Columbus, Ohio
2. Houston
3. Boston
4. Charlotte
5. Indianapolis
6. Los Angeles
7. Washington, DC
8. Oakland
9. Philadelphia
10. Nashville
11. Jacksonville, FL
12. Dallas
13. Detroit
14. New Orleans
15. Memphis
16. Cleveland
17. New York
18. Atlanta
19. Chicago
20. Milwaukee
21. Baltimore
22. St. Louis, MO