Sixty years after the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the National Urban League is checking in on the “State of Black America” — and they have plenty to say.
Here are some of the best and worst takeaways from the Urban League’s “State of Black America” report.
Best: Society Has Become Marginally More Equal
The Equality Index of Black America, which tracks our level of economic, political, and health status relative to white Americans — shows that things have improved overtime.
Over the last two years, The Urban League found that our society has become marginally more equal for Black Americans. And over the last two decades, there’s been improvement on issues like mass incarceration, violent crime, and voter registration.
Worst: We Still Have a Long Way To Go
The report also concluded that while things have improved after the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and onward — there’s still a long road to reach equality. Persistent economic inequality remains an almost intractable issue. In fact, adjusting for inflation the Urban League found that Black women and men actually earn less money per every dollar made by their white peers than they did twenty years ago. Black homeownership rates also decreased over the last two decades.
Education inequality was another major issue flagged by the report. Black students remain more likely than their white peers to attend schools with teachers with less experience.