I see this as a chain of events finally leading upward out of poverty.
Previously, black men and women were confined to poor areas with the combination of crime “keeping black men down” and early pregnancy “keeping black women down”. But with the introduction of birth control, even though many black men were still incarcerated, at least black women had an opportunity to emerge from poverty through education.
This is what this article points out. That the still single black women are moving out of poverty, but black men are still incarcerated. But without black women to refresh the supply of children in the poor black neighborhoods, only those black men who are more responsible will father the next generation, and then only if they prove themselves, both educationally and financially.
So over an extended period of time, those poor blacks that remain will be culled, one way or another, with the rest moving into the middle class.
I would argue it is not all about the income.
I live in a bedroom community of DC, it is said our county has one of the Nation's highest per capita incomes, and most of the children in our neighborhood ($400K - $700K home prices today) talk and act like street thugs; have joined or started gangs, and many have already had a stint in the juvenile correctional facilities.
Mommy and Daddy are overpaid Government employees but you can't take the thug out of the thinking with just a larger income. You just spread the crime around into the suburbs.