Single, Black, Female -- and Plenty of Company

Dec. 22, 2009 — -- Nicole Marchand is celebrating another birthday. A 31-year-old black woman, she's already a prosecuting attorney in Atlanta and running for state court judge.

Personable yet direct, Marchand isn't the kind of woman you find standing by passively on the sidelines of life. But you would find her, for example, at the Georgia Dome, cheering on the Atlanta Falcons pro football team.

You've heard of a man's man. Marchand is the quintessential man's woman: She appears to have it all. And, yet, she's still single.

She has plenty of company. Forty-two percent of U.S. black women have never been married, double the number of white women who've never tied the knot.

"I look forward to the day," Marchand said. "I look forward to being married."

It's just not that easy. For starters, there are 1.8 million more black women than black men. So even if every black man in America married a black woman today, one out of 12 black women still wouldn't make it down the aisle if they hoped to marry a black man.

Let's take 100 black men. By the time you eliminate those without a high school diploma (21 percent), the unemployed (17 percent) and those ages 25-34 who are incarcerated (8 percent), you have only half of black men, 54 percent, whom many black women find acceptable.

As a prosecutor, Marchand sees this problem firsthand every day.

"It is sad to see that the majority of the defendants that we prosecute are black males," Marchand said. "Those numbers can be very disappointing."

"Nightline" broached the serious dilemma with comedian-turned-relationship-guru Steve Harvey, author of the book "Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man."