Samona Jones last fall with her newborn grandson, William, the second child of daughter Keyana Jones, 16, left. Like her daughter, Samona was an unwed teenager when she first gave birth. Last year, in the same hospital where William was born, Samona delivered her 12th child.





Both Keyana and her mom, Samona Jones, were pregnant before high school. Samona was 13; Keyana, 14.


Samona dropped out of eighth grade, never married and had more babies.

Keyana adores her mom but dreams of a different life. She wants to travel. Move to a bigger city. Maybe become a lawyer.

She can't do that with a house full of kids.

"Who's got my brush?" Samona yells.

Today mom and daughter are both getting ready.

Keyana is taking daughter Lauren for her 18-month well checkup.

Samona also is seeing a doctor. She's 31 and soon to deliver her 12th child.
* * *

The mother-daughter duo is part of an alarming cycle that contributes significantly to Omaha having one of the highest rates of black poverty in the nation.

Census survey data from 2005 and 2006 indicate that the Omaha area had the fifth-highest rate of black poverty among the nation's 100 largest metro areas. Omaha also had one of the widest disparities between black and white incomes.

Consider:

During those same two years, half of all Omaha metro black families were headed by a single female, the 16th-highest rate in the nation.

And more than 75 percent of blacks in Douglas County who gave birth were not married. That compares with 24 percent for whites and about 49 percent for Hispanics.

In 2002, the most recent year for which comparisons are available, the Omaha area ranked seventh worst in teen births among blacks. More than 22 percent of blacks who had babies were teens, a share that beat New Orleans and Chicago.

Of about 800 births to Douglas County teens in 2007, 36 percent, or 283, were to black teens. Overall, the county's population is about 13 percent black.

Says Charles Murray of the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research: "As long as half of black families with children under 18 are headed by a lone female and as long as a quarter of young black males who are out of prison and out of school are not even looking for work, the poverty numbers for blacks are not going to come down much, no matter how good the economy is and no matter what new social programs the politicians try."

Teenage pregnancy has become so accepted, sometimes even planned, that a counseling center in north Omaha dropped crisis from its name. Ads now emphasize its quality medical professionals.

"The girls don't see it as being an embarrassment or crisis anymore," said Barb Malek of AAA Center for Pregnancy Counseling.

There are even popular terms — baby-daddy and baby-mama — to describe unmarried parent-partners.

The attitude worries experts. They know that family structure affects a child's education, social behavior and economic well-being.

Children of unmarried teens more often end up struggling as teen parents, says Nancy Foral of Omaha's Essential Pregnancy Services.

According to 2004 data used by the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, 33 percent of the daughters of teen moms became teen moms, compared with 11 percent of the daughters of moms who gave birth at slightly older ages, 20 and 21.

"We might not like it, we might want something else," says Foral. "But that is what we know. For the most part, that is what we end up re-creating."

* * *


As little girls, the void didn't seem so odd.


Keyana Jones with infant son William and daughter Lauren at an Omaha restaurant this month.
Samona's father left after a divorce when she was an infant and mostly stayed away until her adulthood.

Keyana's father was only about 13 when she was conceived, too young to be much help.

The women don't lack strong female figures in their lives but now believe that a doting dad would have warded off boys, if only for a while longer.

Instead, Samona was ensnared by curiosity, peer pressure, attention. Her mom worked multiple jobs. Her two older sisters also were teen moms.

It was Samona's first sexual partner, and she didn't consider the consequences.

After Keyana was born, Samona stopped going to school regularly.

She tried an independent study center but at age 16 had another baby. By age 20, she had four children.

They lived in a publicly subsidized apartment. Bills piled up. Parties, booze and men offered temporary escapes.

Meanwhile, Keyana often stayed at her maternal grandmother's house, where she had her own room. She had rules but managed to sneak out.

Though not trying to get pregnant, Keyana said, she didn't use any means of prevention, either.

She went from an eighth-grader to an expectant mother in a girls group home. She was placed in independent study before enrolling at Omaha Central High School and its teen mothers course.

Keyana kind of likes being a young mom. She dresses Lauren in colorful barrettes and teaches her to kiss.

"The only thing is, there are so many responsibilities. It makes it more complicated because you are trying to graduate."

Toddler Lauren's father, whom Keyana didn't plan to stay with, is involved with his daughter.

Of the seven men who fathered Samona's children, only one is steady on child support and another pays occasionally. Three were last known to be in jail. One remains married to someone else. All drop in and out of the kids' lives.


Samona's current beau, Tony, is the father of her youngest four.

Samona loves him but can't envision them married.

He cooks and helps watch the kids. He also has a criminal record, which hurts employment prospects. Even if he had a job, Samona says, his five children from a previous relationship would share any child support.

What benefit would marriage bring, she asks, if the husband can't offer her a higher standard of living?

* * *


Family makeup is a key predictor of income, and research has tied income to just about everything.

Consider:

While the U.S. median income of white families overall was 91 percent higher than that of black families in 2006, the gap narrowed dramatically to 29 percent when comparing two-parent households within the races.

That pattern was even more pronounced in Douglas County, where the overall median income of white families was 129 percent higher than that of blacks. The disparity shrank to 14 percent higher when two-parent households were compared.

The Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy reports that a baby is nine times more likely to grow up poor if mom is unmarried, a teen and a high school dropout than if none of those factors exists.

Bottom line, says the Children's Defense Fund, odds are greater that poor children will lag in health and educational achievement. They're more likely to get in trouble with the law.

Omaha suffers from a toxic poverty blend that goes beyond money woes, said Franklin Thompson, a city councilman who teaches about race at the University of Nebraska at Omaha.

He said the black community is gripped by a "culture of poverty" in which the so-called gangsta side of hip-hop marketing brainwashes youngsters into believing, for example, that speaking intelligently is "acting white."

So encompassing is the culture that those in it settle for less and adapt to an underclass lifestyle, Thompson said.

A strong generation of upwardly mobile minorities could help reverse such self-destruction with role modeling.

But, Thompson said, "Omaha lacks a sizable homegrown black middle class to help mentor children and undo some of the damage that has been done."

* * *


Samona lays out clothes for her youngest kids, demands a tidy house, ensures that the older boys have clean socks.

She wants her kids to achieve, but obstacles stand high.

With no family car, it's tough to attend school activities.

Even if she had time, Samona never took an algebra or a computer class, so she's not much of a tutor.

One son was suspended for excessive tardiness to middle school. (Samona said she feared for his safety and preferred he wait until after sunlight to start walking to school.)

A few younger brothers were sent home from school for misbehaving. (Samona says they're typically mild-mannered around family.)

Two of her boys are classified as special education students. (Samona said they couldn't always keep pace with their peers.)

To cope, she "blocks out" stressful situations and trusts, hopes, that all will fall into place.

"When you get too stressed, you start lashing out at the closest thing, and the closest thing to me are my kids."

Besides, Samona says, things could be worse. A few years ago, they were.

Police ticketed her for child neglect for leaving little ones unattended when, she said, she was smoking cigarettes outside. Her kids went briefly to foster care. Utilities got shut off. A landlord hauled furniture onto the lawn.

Samona still cries over the loss of sentimental items like her boys' wrestling trophies.

Most of Samona's family moved in with a sister after that eviction. The oldest two boys stayed with a paternal uncle.

Help eventually came, as it had in various forms other times.

One of the kids' dads landed a job, and the state sent a child support check. Samona used it as a deposit on a house she paid $650 a month to rent.

An Omaha company, acting on a tip from a teacher, showered Samona's reunited family with Christmas gifts and a clothes washer and dryer.

"That was a blessing," she recalled.

When Samona has another baby, food stamps increase. Just recently, a legislative change repealed a cap on Aid to Dependent Children, so her family started getting more of that aid. The two total nearly $2,000 monthly.

For a few months, pregnancy delayed Samona's deadline to find work or training. But she scoffs at the idea of public aid being a financial incentive to have more kids, saying she'd prefer to work if she could find a decent-paying job.

Contributing to Samona's large family is her opposition to birth control. Mostly, though, she has been so busy handling the crisis of the moment that she never charted a course for her future.

"I'm so far into it now that one more child is (just) another mouth at the table."

Samona has experimented with moneymaking schemes, but fears legal ramifications. She returns to routine.

"Being a mother is what I know."

Her hope is that her children make smarter choices.

i hope she is able to give all those kids a good life.

Outstrip:

Disgrace. The should give her a freaking hysterectomy. Ode.My heart goes out to the kids.

that isnt that strange,the former first lady (abacha's wife)had 9 , and a lot of wome mostly in the 70's had an average of between 5-12

bawomolo:

IN THE 70's, this one na 2008 ooo. ole lady is putting in work.

almondjoy:

Hmmmmmmmmmm! Don't really know what to think. I hope they will all turn out ok.

That "hope", AJ, is surrounded by alot of mitigating factors!

The "hope" will probably die soon, from suffocation!!

Poor innocent children brought to this world by a hopeless mother to suffer needlessly!!!

Life isn't fair!