The rise in single-mother families in this country harms children, and as result, they're landing in courtrooms around the nation, Georgia Supreme Chief Court Justice Leah Ward Sears '76 said recently to Cornell alumni at Emory University in Atlanta.

Sears advocated for programs that encourage parents to get married and stay married.

"In last 25 years that I've had the honor to serve in Georgia's judicial society, I've learned that in large and growing parts of our society today, children have guns, they have drugs, and they are having babies," Sears said. "They are lonely, they are abandoned, and they are insufficiently educated, even insufficiently clothed and fed. And in large parts of our society today, children are being born to single and often, but not always, poor women with little if any input from the men who fathered them."

Family law that fails to encourage marriage ignores the fact that marriage has long been associated with a broad array of positive outcomes for children and adults alike, she said, citing studies that show that children raised outside of marriage are more likely to suffer from physical and mental illness, drop out of school, abuse alcohol or drugs and engage in or suffer from violence.

Today, less than half of U.S. households are headed by two-parent families, and 70 percent of African-American babies are born to single mothers.

Marriage, she said, connects men to children. "So many men provide so much more when they're married to the mother of their children," Sears said.

Despite her strong views on the benefits of children growing up in married families, Sears also advocates for programs that support single parents. (She was divorced herself and raised two children on her own for four years before remarrying.)

"Many hardworking single parents do an excellent job of raising children, and they need and deserve our help and support as well," she said. "But I still believe that building a vital and healthy marriage culture in America is still the best thing we can do for our children."

Sears has a B.S. from Cornell in human development and family studies, a law degree from Emory University and a master's degree in the appellate judicial process from the University of Virginia. She was elected to the Superior Court of Fulton County in 1988, making her the first African-American woman to serve as superior court judge in Georgia. She was appointed to the Georgia Supreme Court in 1992, becoming the first woman and youngest person ever to serve on court. She is also the first woman to serve as chief justice of the court.

As chief justice, Sears has established a commission on children, marriage and family law with the goal of finding ways to reduce unnecessary divorce (she is in favor of divorce in cases of abuse and domestic violence).

Her ultimate goal, she said, is to find a way to help families before they end up in the criminal justice system.

"Accepting the decline of marriage is an inevitable means to giving up on far too many of our children, and I personally believe they deserve better than that," she said.

The event was sponsored by the College of Human Ecology and the Cornell Alumni Association of Atlanta, Cornell Black Alumni Association of Atlanta, Cornell Law School and Cornell Law School Association, Cornell Minority Alumni Programs and Cornell Southeast Regional Office. A video of the talk is available on CornellCast at http://www.cornell.edu/video/details.cfm?vidID=246&display=player.

Sheri Hall is assistant communications director for the College of Human Ecology.