NATION IN BRIEF : NATIONWIDE : Blacks Worried for Children, Poll Finds

Black adults are overwhelmingly pessimistic about the prospects of black children, citing fears of violence, guns, drugs and gangs, a poll says. The poll, commissioned by the Children’s Defense Fund and a new organization known as the Black Community Crusade for Children, found that more than three-fourths of respondents said they fear that their children or children they know will fall victim to violence. More than 70% of the respondents, many of them raised in an era of segregation, said they believe that it is harder for children today than it was for them. More than three-fourths of black children polled said school violence is a serious problem for them; 70% said the same of guns.