This report attempts to describe empirically the decision making processes of black families. A black community in Northeastern Ohio was the subject of the study. Information was obtained from interviews with both the husband and wife of 203 families. In addition, an analysis of each subject's perception of his family's orientation is included. The Family Decision Making Scale, developed by Blood and Wolfe in "Husbands and Wives," is used to quantify results. The mean score for husbands is 6.8; and 6.7 for wives. Thus, the mean score for both husbands and wives is in a patriarchial direction. Only two percent of the husbands saw the power structure of the family as wife dominant, while 25 percent saw it as equalitarian, with the overwhelming majority, 73 percent, seeing it as husband dominant. Nearly the same is true for the wives, with the percentages being 4, 34, and 62 respectively. In conclusion, the findings show that not all black families are matriarchal as the popular sterotype holds and as some sociological studies seem to indicate, the black working-class families studied in this report being somewhat more patriarchal. [Not available in hard copy due to the marginal legibility of the original document.] (Author/JW)