The Economic State of Black America in 2020
Over the past half-century, Black Americans have made substantial social and economic progress, gaining political rights that long had been denied to them, entering professions from which they had been blocked and largely overcoming centuries of overt racism and oppression.
While there were only five Black Members of Congress when the Civil Rights Act became law in 1964, there currently are 56 Black Members of Congress, including 12% of the House of Representatives. Black activists, scholars, and social commentators have raised awareness about the importance of diversity and shaped the national conversation around race and inequality. There has been a proliferation of Black writers, screenwriters, artists, poets, athletes and musicians who have become superstars in their respective fields. And the 21st century saw the election of the first Black American, Barack Obama, as president of the United States.
Millions of Black Americans also have benefited from the opportunities created by the de jure end of Jim Crow, entering the middle class for the first time, earning undergraduate and advanced degrees, receiving higher wages, achieving professional success and raising children who will build on their achievements. Leading indicators of economic prosperity and other measures of well-being also have trended upward for most of this period, with increased life expectancy, increased household incomes and substantial gains in educational attainment.
However, these very visible signs of improvement mask deep inequities that relegate tens of millions of Black Americans to second-class status, with far fewer opportunities to achieve good health, political influence, prosperity and security than other Americans. The majority of Americans fail to recognize the magnitude of these problems. For example, a 2019 study found that over 97% of respondents vastly underestimated the huge gap between the median wealth held by Black families ($17,000) and White families ($171,000)—a ratio of 10 to one. Respondents estimated the gap to be 80 percentage points smaller than the actual divide.
The data reveal a much different story, with leading indicators of social and economic well-being showing that, on average, Black Americans face much more difficult circumstances than their White counterparts. For example, Black Americans take home less income, are far less likely to own their homes and live shorter lives than White Americans.
Evaluating the economic state of Black America requires acknowledging that while the United States has made some progress, very large disparities continue to exist. Recognizing both the progress and the challenges is essential to ensuring that all Americans, including Black Americans, have a realistic chance to achieve success.
The Economic State of Black America in 2020
KEY POINTS
∙ Despite significant economic progress over the past decades, Black Americans experience far worse economic conditions than Whites or the population as a whole.
∙ Historically, the unemployment rate for Black Americans has been approximately twice the rate for Whites. That is the case today—6.0% for Black workers and 3.1% for Whites.
∙ The difference in the unemployment rates for Blacks and Whites shrinks for college graduates; however, even in the current strong economy the unemployment rate is 50% higher for Black Americans.
∙ During the majority of the past 50 years, Black Americans have experienced unemployment rates that, were they experienced by the entire population, would be seen as recessionary.
∙ Black workers have been disproportionally hurt by the overall decline in union membership and the decreasing power of unions.
∙ The typical Black households earns a fraction of White households—just 59 cents for every dollar. The gap between Black and White annual household incomes is about $29,000 per year.
∙ Black Americans are over twice as likely to live in poverty as White Americans. ∙ Black children are three times as likely to live in poverty as White children.
∙ The median wealth of Black families ($17,000)—is less than one-tenth that of White families ($171,000).
∙ The wealth gap between Black and White households increases with education.
∙ Much less than half (42%) of Black families own their homes, compared to almost three-quarters (73%) of White families.
∙ High school graduation rates for Black and White Americans have nearly converged.
∙ The share of Blacks who are college graduates has more than doubled since 1990, from 11% to 25%—but still lags far behind Whites.
∙ Persistent segregation leads to large disparities in the quality of secondary education, leading to worse economic outcomes.
∙ The incarceration rate for Black Americans is falling, but is still nearly six times the rate for White Americans.
∙ Non-Hispanic Black Americans have a life expectancy 3.6 years lower than non Hispanic White Americans.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
EMPLOYMENT............................................................................................................................. 5 The unemployment rate for Black Americans is much higher than for Whites ......................... 5 Racial disparities in unemployment rates exist at every education level.................................... 5 A smaller share of Black Americans are in the labor force ........................................................ 6 Discrimination and occupational segregation are significant causes of racial disparities.......... 6
UNIONIZATION ........................................................................................................................... 7 Black workers are more likely to be members of labor unions .................................................. 7 Union membership reduces wage differentials between Blacks and Whites ............................. 7 Falling union membership rates are particularly harmful to Black workers .............................. 7
WAGES AND INCOME................................................................................................................ 8 Black households earn a fraction of what White households earn ............................................. 8 Black workers are more likely to earn the minimum wage ........................................................ 9 College-educated Black workers fare worse in comparison to White workers........................ 10 Black women are doubly disadvantaged................................................................................... 10
POVERTY AND ECONOMIC MOBILITY................................................................................ 11 Black Americans are over twice as likely to live in poverty as White Americans................... 11 High poverty rates among Black Americans have lifelong consequences............................... 12 Black Americans experience far less upward economic mobility............................................ 12 Black Americans depend more on the social safety net ........................................................... 12
WEALTH...................................................................................................................................... 12 The median wealth of Black families is only one-tenth that of White families ....................... 12 A college education does not decrease the wealth gap ............................................................. 13 Historical disparities perpetuate the Black-White wealth gap.................................................. 13 Many Black college graduates have difficulty paying off student loan debt............................ 14 Black Americans approaching retirement have far less savings............................................... 14
HOMEOWNERSHIP ................................................................................................................... 14 Black Americans are far less likely to own their own homes than White Americans.............. 14 Homes in majority-Black neighborhoods are valued lower ..................................................... 15 Black Americans overall pay higher mortgage interest rates ................................................... 15
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Black homeownership rates are trending downward................................................................ 15 EDUCATION ............................................................................................................................... 16 High school graduation and dropout shares for Blacks and Whites have nearly converged.... 16 The share of Black college graduates has doubled—but still lags far behind whites............... 17 Racial segregation leads to large educational disparities.......................................................... 17 Concentrated poverty leads to weak student performance ....................................................... 18 A lack of teacher diversity worsens outcomes.......................................................................... 18 Nonwhite school districts as a whole are more poorly funded ................................................. 18 INCARCERATION...................................................................................................................... 19 One in three Black men will be incarcerated over his lifetime................................................. 19
The incarceration rate for Black Americans is falling, but is nearly six times the rate for White Americans................................................................................................................................. 20
VOTING RIGHTS........................................................................................................................ 21 Black voter turnout decreased in 2016...................................................................................... 21 Decreased voter turnout is partly a result of voter suppression................................................ 21
HEALTH....................................................................................................................................... 22 Black Americans have a significantly lower life expectancy than Whites............................... 22 Blacks have a lower life expectancy despite White “deaths of despair” .................................. 23 Black Americans suffer far higher rates of infant and pregnancy-related mortality ................ 23 Discrimination may contribute to worse health outcomes........................................................ 24 Health insurance rates for Blacks rose under Obama, then have fallen under Trump.............. 25
CONCLUSION............................................................................................................................. 27 STATE CHART............................................................................................................................ 28 ENDNOTES ................................................................................................................................. 29
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The Economic State of Black America in 2020
EMPLOYMENT
The unemployment rate for Black Americans is much higher than for Whites
The U.S. economy provides Black Americans with far fewer opportunities for stable, well paying employment than their White counterparts. Over the past 50 years, the unemployment rate for Blacks consistently has been approximately twice that of Whites. Although President Trump in his recent State of the Union Address heralded the fact the Black unemployment rate had dropped to 6% in January 2020, it still is almost twice the White unemployment rate of 3.1%.1
The spread between White and Black unemployment increases when overall unemployment rises and decreases when it falls. In 1983, when Federal Reserve Chair Paul Volcker pushed through very large increases in interest rates to combat inflation, Black unemployment skyrocketed to 21.2%, more than twice White unemployment.
Often, even in a strong economy, the labor market for Black Americans is what White Americans experience during a recession. In general, African Americans benefit when the economy improves, but when it sputters, they are the first to be fired. For this reason, policies that help support a strong economy close to full employment are particularly beneficial for Black Americans and help reduce racial disparities.2
Racial disparities in unemployment rates exist at every education level
The largest gaps in unemployment exist between Black and White workers without a college education. The average unemployment rate in 2019 for Black workers with just a high school education was 8.5%, more than twice the 3.9% rate for similarly educated White workers.
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Unemployment rates for both Blacks and Whites with at least a bachelor’s degree were much lower, two percent for Whites and three percent for Blacks—50% higher.
A smaller share of Black Americans are in the labor force
The current economic expansion, which began in 2009 under President Obama and is the longest on record, has helped increase the share of Black Americans in the labor force. As the labor market has tightened over the past several years, the difference between labor force participation rates for Blacks (62.6%) and Whites (63.4%) has almost disappeared. This undermines the persistent stereotype that Blacks are less inclined to seek work than Whites, suggesting instead that they have fewer opportunities to seek employment when the economy is not operating at its peak.
Black women and men have traditionally had labor force participation rates that are much similar than those of White women and men, reflecting a more gender-equitable division of labor both within and outside the home.3 This in part may be due to difficult labor market conditions and discrimination against Black men, which makes Black women’s participation critical to their families.4 The labor force participation rates of Black women and men were 63.3% and 67.6% in January 2020, compared to 58.3% and 72% for White women and men.
Discrimination and occupational segregation are significant causes of racial disparities
Field experiments have shown that resumes with typically “Black sounding” names received significantly fewer callbacks for job interviews than those with “White sounding” names, even
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when candidates had identical qualifications.5 A meta-analysis of these experiments has shown almost no change in the level of hiring discrimination among Blacks over the past 25 years.6 There also is evidence of Black employment being concentrated in occupations that have a higher risk of unemployment, often because of automation.7 Black workers also are at higher risk of being the first fired in the event of an economic downturn.8
UNIONIZATION
Black workers are more likely to be members of labor unions
Labor unions have played a key role in helping Black workers secure higher wages, more comprehensive benefits and better working conditions, offering millions of Blacks a pathway to joining the American middle class. Black workers have higher rates of union membership than White workers, with membership rates of 11.2% compared to 10.3% for White workers.9
Union membership reduces wage differentials between Blacks and Whites
Unionization has narrowed the wage disparity between Blacks and Whites, but has not eliminated it. In 2019, unionized Black men earned $948 per week compared to $1,181 for unionized White men, a relative pay gap of 80 cents to the dollar. Non-unionized Black men earned $746 compared to $1,012 for non-unionized White men, or 74 cents to the dollar.
Unionization made virtually no difference in the wage gap between Black and White women; unionized Black women earned $874 to unionized White women’s $1,044 (84 cents to the dollar), while non-unionized Black women earned $683 to non-unionized White women’s $810 (84 cents).10 Given the reduced racial earnings gaps between unionized men and that a larger share of Black workers overall is unionized, earnings gaps between Black and White workers likely would be larger without unions.11
In addition to helping secure better wages and working conditions for Black Americans, unions also played a key role in the Civil Rights movement, improving the lives and economic fates of all Black Americans. Civil Rights leaders, in turn, championed organized labor. A. Phillip Randolph founded the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, the first Black labor organization chartered by the American Federation of Labor (AFL), and went on to become one of the architects of the Civil Rights Movement.12 Martin Luther King, Jr. was an outspoken advocate for the labor movement and created the Poor People’s Campaign, a multiracial working-class movement dedicated to economic equality and social justice, with strong ties to organized labor.13
Falling union membership rates are particularly harmful to Black workers
Union membership as a share of employment has been declining steeply for all Americans since the 1980s, declining by nearly half overall from 20.1% in 1983 to 10.3% in 2019. The decline for Blacks has been the steepest, from 27.2% in 1983 to 11.2% in 2019.14
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In recent years, the most significant drops have been among Black Americans, whose union membership fell from 12.5% to 11.2% from 2018 to 2019. In comparison, White union membership remained relatively unchanged (from 10.4% in 2018 to 10.3% in 2019). The passage of “right-to-work” laws in states across the country, President Trump’s executive orders restricting union activities and recent Supreme Court decisions that jeopardize collective bargaining, likely will cause this decline to continue.
WAGES AND INCOME
Black households earn a fraction of what White households earn
The median annual household income for Black households in 2018 (the last year for which household data are available) was $41,692, more than $21,000 less than all households and nearly $29,000 less than for White households, which had a median income of $70,642. In other words, for every dollar earned by the typical White household, the typical Black household
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$80,000 $70,000 $60,000 $50,000 $40,000 $30,000 $20,000 $10,000 $-
Black Families Earn Far Less than White Families and All Families Nationwide
Median Household Income, Adjusted to 2018 Dollars, 1980-2018
Non-Hispanic White $70,642
$63,179
All Races
$41,692
Black
1980 1984 1988 1992 1996 2000 2004 2008 2012 2016
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, "Income and Poverty in the United States: 2018," Table A-2.
Note: Income in 2018 CPI-U-RS adjusted dollars. Households as of March of the following year. "Black" refers to Black Alone or in Combination (2002-2018)/Black (1980-2001). "Non-Hispanic White" refers to White Alone, Not Hispanic (2002-2018)/White, Not Hispanic (1980-2001).
earned only 59 cents. This is significantly worse than in 2000, when the typical Black household earned about 65 cents for every dollar earned by a White household. 15
Between 2000 and 2018, wage growth for White and Hispanic workers was faster at every decile of income than for Black workers; as a result, the gap in hourly wages between Black and White workers is larger now at every decile of income than in 2000.16 The past 40 years have seen rising wage inequality and stagnating wage growth in the United States; this trend has coincided with increasing racial disparities in wages and wage growth. Wages have grown fastest for those at the top of the income distribution, including for high-earning Black workers. However, because Black workers make up a disproportionate share of the bottom of the income distribution, slow wage gains at the bottom have hit the Black community hardest.
Black workers are more likely to earn the minimum wage
Black workers are significantly more likely to work at or below the minimum wage than White workers; 2.4% of Black workers worked at or below the federal minimum wage of $7.25 in 2019 compared to 1.9% of White workers. In 2018, Black workers made up 18% of minimum wage workers despite being only 12.7% of the population.17
Black Americans would especially benefit from increases in the minimum wage. Research shows that this not only would raise wages for workers who receive the minimum wage, but those earning more than the minimum wage.18 As a result, 38% of Black workers would benefit from a proposal to raise the minimum wage to $15 by 2024, compared to 23.2% of White workers.19
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College-educated Black workers fare worse in comparison to White workers
Ironically, college-educated Black workers face a larger absolute income gap relative to Whites than those without a college education. While Black workers with less than a high school education earned $3,500 less than similarly educated White workers in 2018, Black workers with a bachelor’s degree and above earned $11,000 less than their White counterparts.
College-educated Black workers are also at a higher risk than their White counterparts of being underemployed—working in occupations that do not make use of their education and consequently pay less. Almost 40% (39.4) of Black college graduates are underemployed compared to 31% of White graduates. 20
Racial Pay Gaps Are Widest for Employees with College
Degrees
Median Total Personal Income by Race, 2018
$70,000 $60,000 $50,000 $40,000 $30,000 $20,000 $10,000 $0
Non-Hispanic White
Black
$27,000
$20,000
$15,000
$11,459
$60,000
$49,000
$34,800
$30,000
Less than High School
High School Some College College +
Source: JEC Democratic Staff Calculations, Current Population Survey, ASEC 2019.
Note: "Some College" includes associate degrees, "College +" refers to bachelor's degrees and more. "Black" refers to Black Alone or in Combination. "Non-Hispanic White" refers to White Alone, Not Hispanic.
Black women are doubly disadvantaged
Black women face a double-penalty in income, earning less due to both racial and gender disparities. This income penalty can be traced in part to discrimination and occupational segregation. Black women earned 68 cents for every dollar earned by White men in 2019, improving from 65 cents in 2018. 21 This gender-racial gap in earnings between Black women and White men translates to a lifetime earnings difference of over $900,000 (assuming a 40-year career).22
Reductions in occupational segregation began to slow significantly in the 1980s, and there has been little to no progress in reducing occupational segregation since in the 21st century.23 Between 2000 and 2016, the share of Black women who would have to change occupations in
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order to eliminate occupational segregation between Black women and White men fell only three percentage points, from 59% to 56%.24
POVERTY AND ECONOMIC MOBILITY
Black Americans are over twice as likely to live in poverty as White Americans
In 2018, almost one-in-12 (8.1%) non-Hispanic White Americans lived under the poverty line. More than two and a half times that percentage of Black Americans (20.8%) lived in poverty. The share of Black Americans living below the poverty line has not fallen below 20%, nor has the share of White Americans living below the poverty line risen above 11% since at least 1959.25
Black workers generally are more likely to work at what are known as “poverty-level wages”— at which one person working full time, year-round, would still earn less than the federal poverty line for their family size. In 2017, 14.3% of Black workers earned poverty-level wages, compared to just 8.6% of White workers.26
Black Americans also face high rates of child poverty in America, with under-18 poverty rates close to or exceeding 30% dating back to 1974. The poverty rate for Black children regularly triples the rate for White children.27
Black Child Poverty Rates Are Regularly Triple White
Rates
50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0%
Black
White
Poverty Rate Under 18 Years, 1974-2018
1974 1978 1982 1986 1990 1994 1998 2002 2006 2010 2014 2018
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Historical Poverty Tables: Table 3. "Poverty Status of People by Age, Race, and Hispanic Origin."
Note: "Black" refers to Black Alone (2002-2018)/Black (1974-2001). "White" refers to White Alone, Not Hispanic (2002-2018)/White, Not Hispanic (1974-2001).
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High poverty rates among Black Americans have lifelong consequences
The consequences of high poverty rates are felt throughout the life cycle for Black Americans. Poverty has well-documented adverse effects on children’s educational outcomes and limits young adults’ ability to pursue post-secondary education.28 Those born to families at or below the poverty line are more than twice as likely to be in poor health as adults as those born into families with income more than twice the poverty line.29
Black Americans experience far less upward economic mobility
Black Americans face more limited upward economic mobility than White Americans and face a higher risk of downward mobility, even when not born into poverty. Black children born into families in the bottom income quintile are twice as likely as poor White children to stay in the bottom income quintile as adults. The wealthiest Black children are nearly just as likely to remain in the top income quintile as they are to fall to the bottom as adults, whereas it is rare for rich White children to become impoverished as adults.30
Black Americans depend more on the social safety net
Safety net programs like SNAP, unemployment insurance, Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security have wide-ranging benefits for demographic groups throughout the economy. They also help to stabilize the economy in the event of an economic downturn by sustaining spending when the economy weakens. 31 Safety net programs disproportionately benefit Black Americans because a larger share lives close to or below the poverty line.
WEALTH
The median wealth of Black families is only one-tenth that of White families
The median net worth of White families is $171,000, nearly 10 times the median net worth of Black families, which was only $17,150 in 2016. The median Black net worth is less than one year’s subsistence at the federal poverty level for a family of three.32
White Families Own Nearly Ten Times the Wealth of Black Families
Median Family Net Worth, 2016
$180,000
$160,000 $140,000 $120,000 $100,000
$80,000 $60,000 $40,000 $20,000 $-
$97,290
$171,000
$17,150
All Races White, Not Hispanic Black Source: JEC Democratic Staff Calculations, Federal Reserve Survey of Consumer Finances, 2016.
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Among households with wealth, Black median household wealth hovered between 5% and 17% of the level of White household wealth between 1989 and 2016. Black households have never held more than 5% of the nation’s total wealth, while White households held 85% in 2019, despite Blacks making up around 13% of the population.33 A 2016 study found that Americans underestimated the size of the Black-White wealth gap by 80 percentage points.34
If these trends persist, White median household wealth will increase while Black and Hispanic household wealth continues to fall. At the current pace of decline, median household wealth could reach zero by 2053 for Black households and by 2073 for Hispanic households.35
A college education does not decrease the wealth gap
Racial wealth disparities are larger for more highly educated Blacks and Whites than for those with less education. While the Black-White gap in wealth was $51,000 for those with less than a high school education in 2016, for those with a bachelor’s degree or higher, the gap was over
Racial Wealth Disparities Increase with Education
Median Household Net Worth by Race, 2016
$450,000 $400,000 $350,000 $300,000 $250,000 $200,000 $150,000
$399,000
Black White Non-Hispanic
$102,850 $103,430
$100,000 $50,000 $0
$62,000 $68,200 $11,000 $10,910 $13,810
Less than High School
High School Some College College +
Source: 2016 Survey of Consumer Finances.
Note: "Some College" includes those with associates degrees; "College +" refers to bachelor's degrees and more.
$300,000. The median net worth of college-educated Black families was $68,200, while for White families it was $399,000.
Historical disparities perpetuate the Black-White wealth gap
Intergenerational wealth transfers are a determining factor in the distribution of wealth in the United States and of the racial wealth gap in particular.36 Throughout history, Black Americans have been excluded from programs that allowed a White middle class to emerge and build
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wealth, and the wealth Blacks were able to build despite these hurdles was often destroyed through acts of domestic terrorism (e.g. Wilmington, NC in 1898, Tulsa, OK in 1921 and countless other smaller lynchings throughout the 19th and 20th centuries).37 Institutional practices like redlining, the undervaluation of homes in majority-Black neighborhoods and predatory lending continue to exacerbate racial wealth disparities. The failure to fully address these inequities further sustains the wealth gap from generation to generation.
Many Black college graduates have difficulty paying off student loan debt
Twenty years after starting college, the typical Black borrower still owes 95% of his or her original balance, while the typical White borrower owes only 6%.38 This student debt burden contributes to the difficulty Black adults have in building wealth, preparing for retirement and passing wealth to the next generation.
Black Americans approaching retirement have far less savings
Racial disparities in wealth and income continue across lifetimes and lead to disparities in retirement readiness. There are significant gaps in retirement account savings across both race and gender, with Black men and women ages 55-64 each only holding $30,000 in savings compared to White men’s $101,000 and White women’s $60,000. 39
HOMEOWNERSHIP
Black Americans are far less likely to own their own homes than White Americans
Less than half of Black families own their homes (42%), compared to nearly three-quarters of White families (73%). This is a significant decline from the peak Black homeownership rate of 49% in 2004. The collapse of the housing market in 2008 hit Black homeowners particularly hard, with Black households over 70% more likely to have faced foreclosure than non-Hispanic White households.
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Homes in majority-Black neighborhoods are valued lower
Fifty years after the passage of the Fair Housing Act, which prohibited discrimination in housing sales, rentals or financing based on religion, race or national origin, residential segregation is still widespread in the United States. Across the 51 metropolitan areas in the United States with at least 1 million residents, the average segregation index was at still nearly 60—where 0 represents full integration and 100 represents complete separation of racial groups. Homes in majority Black neighborhoods are valued at $48,000 less on average than homes in neighborhoods with few or no Black residents, even when controlling for home quality and neighborhood amenities.
Black Americans overall pay higher mortgage interest rates
During the housing boom of the early and mid-2000s, Black loan applicants living in majority Black neighborhoods were more likely to receive high risk and high-cost mortgage terms than those living in majority White neighborhoods. Research shows that Black applicants of a similar age, employment history and credit score, seeking to purchase a home in a similar metro area, were almost 8% more likely to have a high-cost mortgage than White applicants.40
Black homeownership rates are trending downward
Black millennials (ages 21-36) had a homeownership rate of just 16% in 2017. This is slightly less than one-third the 46% rate of non-Hispanic White millennials. The millennial Black-White homeownership gap substantially exceeds that of every previous generation of Americans since World War II.
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The relatively low rate of homeownership for Black millennials is strongly influenced by disparities in employment rates, income, student debt burdens and wealth. Many Americans rely on homeownership and rising home prices as a form of savings; therefore, the low rate of homeownership among young Blacks will make it more difficult for them to build wealth and prepare for retirement.
Over half of Black households (58%) rent their homes, while only 28% of White households rent.41 Black families often find it more challenging to cover the cost of rent due to a combination of the disparities in income and wages and because of the general crisis in housing affordability in the United States.
EDUCATION
High school graduation and dropout shares for Blacks and Whites have nearly converged
Between 1990 and 2017, increasing shares of both Black and White youth have finished high school. The shares of Black and White adults with high school diplomas or GEDs have nearly converged, with Black rates rising from 66% to 88% and White rates rising from 79% to 90%. The shares of Black and White youths (ages 15-24) who are high school dropouts are converging as well, with Black rates falling from 13.2% to 5.7% from 1990 to 2017, and White rates falling from 9% to 4.6%.
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The share of Black college graduates has doubled—but still lags far behind whites
Between 2000 and 2017, college enrollment increased markedly for all groups, such that the share of Black women enrolled in college (40%) exceeded the share of White men enrolled (38%).42
However, large disparities in college graduation rates remain. While 67% of White students who enrolled in college in 2012 had completed their degrees by 2018, just 41% of Black students finished their degrees.43 Moreover, although the share of Black adults with college degrees more than doubled since 1990, the gap in the share of Black and White college graduates has remained mostly unchanged. Differences in Black and White college completion outcomes reflect differences in institution type and access to resources like parental wealth for financial support during enrollment.
Racial segregation leads to large educational disparities
Enrollment, graduation and dropout rates alone do not reflect the degree of educational disparities based on race. Economic success depends not only on whether an individual received an education but on whether he or she got a good education sufficient to lead to a well-paying career. In recent decades, the economic returns to education have increased substantially, and more education often is required to achieve a basic level of financial success.
A landmark study (Reardon, et al, 2019) finds that poverty drives the racial achievement gap in education, rather than racial segregation itself.44 The quality of primary and secondary schools is highly correlated with the wealth of a community, as school funding primarily is dependent on local property taxes, which in turn are driven by the wealth of residents. For this reason, wealthy
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families have very high incentives to live in proximity to other wealthy families, sending their children to better-funded primary and secondary schools. Likewise, working-class families have high incentives to live in the best neighborhoods they can afford. This residential sorting leads affluent families and poor families to live in increasingly separate and homogenous communities.
Race is highly linked to income and wealth, and therefore many poor neighborhoods are also Black neighborhoods. The most impoverished families most often live in the poorest neighborhoods with the worst schools; even if their children graduate from high school or college, they will face steeper odds than their middle- or upper-class counterparts. Schools with high concentrations of minority students are often lower performing than schools with more White children not because of race per se, but because they are impoverished.
As such, racial segregation concentrates minority students in high-poverty schools, which are generally less effective than lower-poverty schools.45
Concentrated poverty leads to weak student performance
Segregated districts have large achievement gaps, not solely due to the racial composition of the student body, but because poverty makes it difficult for students to excel at school. In the 2016- 17 school year, 74% of Black students, compared to 31% of White students, were in mid-high or high poverty schools, with 44% of the Black students in high-poverty schools, compared to 8% of White students.46 The children at these schools come from high-stress environments, surrounded by more crime and violence than affluent White children, adding extra barriers to achievement.47
A lack of teacher diversity worsens outcomes
Students perform better when their teacher is of the same race/ethnicity and data show that schools with more racial/ethnic diversity among their students also have more diversity among their teachers.48 There was little change in the racial/ethnic composition of public elementary and secondary school teachers between 2003-04 and 2015-16; an overwhelming majority of public elementary and secondary school teachers were White.
Nonwhite school districts as a whole are more poorly funded
Recent research finds evidence supporting that higher school funding improves student outcomes.49 When Black students increasingly are concentrated in separate school districts from White students in the same state, total revenue to schools shifts unfavorably away from the typical Black student’s district.50 Majority non-White school districts as a whole receive $23 billion less than majority White districts, despite serving the same number of students.51 Disparities in private fundraising can help to explain achievement gaps even among equally funded schools. Schools with higher private funding can support extracurricular activities, like sports and music groups, which have been found to yield consistent benefits to student academic achievement.52
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As a result of segregation, many Black Americans are held back by wide differences in school quality. This is a powerful determinant of economic outcomes, undermining the notion that every American has roughly the same chance of achieving economic success.
INCARCERATION
One in three Black men will be incarcerated over his lifetime
The United States has the highest incarceration rate in the world, with 440 persons per 100,000 sentenced to prison in 2017.53 The incarceration rate for Black Americans is more than three times higher than the overall U.S. rate at 1,549 per 100,000. Black Americans made up 33% of the sentenced prison population in 2017, despite comprising only about 13% of the U.S adult population.54
The vast disparity in incarceration rates is driven substantially by the unequal application of U.S. laws. For example, Black Americans are 3.7 times more likely than White Americans to be arrested for marijuana possession despite comparable rates of use and are twice as likely to be charged with crimes that carry mandatory minimum sentences.55 Over their lifetime, Black men have a one in three chance of being sent to prison and are 2.5 times more likely to be killed by police than White men.56
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The incarceration rate for Black Americans is falling, but is nearly six times the rate for White Americans
Incarceration rates for all racial groups have fallen significantly over the past decade, with Black rates falling the most sharply. The incarceration rate for Black Americans fell by 31% between 2007 and 2017. Blacks were still nearly six times more likely than Whites to be imprisoned in 2017, though this is down from seven times more likely in 2007.57
These reductions come as the result of more than a decade of criminal justice reform, directed at ending mass incarceration, at the federal and state levels, including the 2010 Fair Sentencing Act, which reduced the disparity in sentencing between crack and powder cocaine offenses that had led to Black Americans often receiving much harsher sentences.58
The economic impact of mass incarceration on the Black community has been devastating. While incarceration makes success in the labor market more difficult in general, it is particularly harmful for Black Americans. Formerly incarcerated Blacks have lower earnings than their White counterparts, even when controlling for differences in health, skills, social background, type of crime committed and job readiness.59 A criminal record restricts employment prospects significantly, with ex-offenders being much less likely to be considered for employment than non-offenders. However, White applicants with criminal records have been shown to receive as many callbacks for interviews as similarly qualified Black applicants without criminal records.60
The impacts of imprisonment can extend well beyond the individual to negative consequences for families and communities. When parents are incarcerated, children have worse health and
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educational development outcomes, as well as worse economic outcomes as adults.61 When the formerly incarcerated return to their communities, they often return to diminished job prospects, lower earnings potential and other challenges.
VOTING RIGHTS
Black voter turnout decreased in 2016
Being able to reliably access and shape government at all levels is essential to the economic health of a community. Monitoring trends in voting and voter suppression throughout the country allows us to see where communities can voice their economic concerns and be heard, and where those voices have the potential to go unheard.
Turnout among Black voters dropped for the first time in 20 years in a presidential election to 59.4% in 2016, down from a record-high of 66.6% in 2012. This coincides with increased efforts to suppress the votes of people of color following the 2013 Supreme Court decision, Shelby County v. Holder, which effectively struck down the core of the Voting Rights Act, allowing states to change their election laws without federal approval. 62
Decreased voter turnout is partly a result of voter suppression
Efforts to suppress voting rights have been made under the guise of neutrality and voter fraud prevention; however, they largely target racial minorities. For example, the “exact match” law in Georgia, which faced repeated legal challenges, disenfranchised Black and Latino voters when nearly 70% of the more than 53,000 voters who had their registration put on hold before the 2018 election were Black.63
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Suppressing the votes of people of color paves the way for state legislators to enact socially conservative agendas and gerrymander districts to establish strangleholds on legislative seats, continuing the cycle of voter disenfranchisement and disempowerment. Partisan gerrymandering in 2010 allowed Republicans in several states to draw districts concentrating Black voters in as few districts as possible, maximizing the number of heavily White Republican seats and minimizing the electoral influence of Black voters.64
The Trump administration attempted to use the 2020 Census to suppress minority voting by adding a citizenship question that opponents argued was intended to make some nonwhite residents less likely to participate.65 This was blocked by the Supreme Court. Data from the decennial census drive the geographic distribution of federal dollars and electoral representation and underlie key indices that measure economic health. A citizenship question would have led to an undercount in the survey due to disproportionately lower response rates among Blacks and Latinos, thus diverting much-needed funds and representation away from states and communities with higher proportions of minorities.
HEALTH
Black Americans have a significantly lower life expectancy than Whites
The life expectancy at birth for non-Hispanic Black Americans is 74.9 years—3.6 years lower than for non-Hispanic Whites. The disparity is worse for Black men, whose life expectancy is only 71.5 years—4.6 years lower than for White men. Black women have a life expectancy of 78.1 years—2.9 years lower than for White women.
Life expectancy in the United States rose consistently from as far back as 1900 up until 2014, when it reached 78.9 years. During the same period, life expectancy for Black men and women rose from 33 years to 75.3 years.66 However, this upward trend stalled in the 2010s, and by 2018 the life expectancy for all Americans had fallen to 78.7 years—the same level at which it had been in 2010.
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The gap in life expectancy between Blacks and Whites decreased from 5.1 years in 2006 and to 4.1 years in 2010. However, progress in closing racial disparities in life expectancy also stalled in the 2010s, with the life expectancy gap between non-Hispanic Blacks and Whites falling to 3.7 years in 2011 and only falling an additional 0.1 year by 2017.
Blacks have a lower life expectancy despite White “deaths of despair”
Much attention has been given to the increased mortality rates among middle-aged White men and women attributable to suicides and accidental poisonings—collectively referred to as “deaths of despair.” However, while life expectancy for non-Hispanic Whites decreased from 78.8 years to 78.5 years between 2014 and 2017, it still at its lowest point exceeded Black life expectancy by 3.6 years.67
Disparities are smaller for those who make it to age 65, with White men living just under two years longer than Black men and White women living just one year longer than Black women. Disparities in life expectancy often decrease with age due to “weathering”—the least healthy Black Americans die earlier, meaning that those who make it to age 65 are relatively healthier than Whites of the same age.68
Black Americans suffer far higher rates of infant and pregnancy-related mortality
Pregnant Black women and Black babies suffer far higher rates of death than their White counterparts. Black mothers are over three times as likely to die from complications with
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The Economic State of Black America in 2020
pregnancy or childbirth as White mothers (40.8 per 100,000 versus 12.7 per 100,000). Black infant mortality rates are twice as high as White rates (10.9 per 100,000 versus 4.7 per 100,000).
Discrimination may contribute to worse health outcomes
Racial disparities in mortality rates and the incidence of sickness and disability are partially the result of disparities in access to the resources that protect and promote good health. The relationship between socioeconomic status and life expectancy is well-established in the United States, and a large portion of the life expectancy gap between Black and White Americans can be attributed to disparities in income and educational attainment.69 However, even when controlling for income, education and wealth, racial disparities in health remain. These unexplained disparities suggest that discrimination and racial bias play a role in determining poorer health outcomes for Black Americans.
Exposure to discrimination is correlated with worse physical and mental health as well, suggesting a direct effect of racism and racial bias on health beyond their effects on socioeconomic status.70 Racial residential segregation results in minority neighborhoods having fewer places for recreational activity, higher exposure to pollutants, a higher concentration of ads for unhealthy substances like fast food, tobacco and alcohol and hospitals with reduced access to technology.71 There is also evidence that Black Americans receive lower-quality health care than White Americans do, even when controlling for access to insurance, income and symptoms.
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Health insurance rates for Blacks rose under Obama, then have fallen under Trump
As recently as 2013, almost one-in-five Black Americans (19%) did not have health insurance; in contrast, only 12% of White Americans were not insured. This gap is due in part to the fact that a higher percentage of Black Americans are employed in low-wage jobs and industries which do not provide health care benefits.
The Affordable Care Act (the ACA or “Obamacare”) provided new coverage options for low and moderate-income individuals. From 2013 to 2016, the uninsured rate for African Americans was cut from 19% to 11%, while rates for Whites were cut from 12% to 7%, and overall rates were cut from nearly 17% to 10%.
However, within a year of President Trump taking office, his administration implemented administrative changes to the ACA that resulted in an increase in the percentage of Americans without health insurance. The overall percent of uninsured individuals rose 0.2%; the uninsured rate for nonelderly Blacks slipped backward by 0.5%—more than 167,000 people.
More Black Americans than any other racial/ethnic group experience a gap in health care coverage, with incomes above Medicaid eligibility levels but below the poverty level, which is the lower limit to qualify for Marketplace subsidies. Almost 16% of Black Americans fall within the coverage gap. In 2012, the Supreme Court decided against a section of the ACA requiring states implement an expansion of Medicaid benefits to cover this gap. In states that chose not to implement Medicaid expansion, the percentage of uninsured, nonelderly Blacks is 6% higher than in states that expanded Medicaid.
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Research has shown that going without health insurance negatively impacts the timing and quality of health care treatment, as well as long-term health outcomes.72 This in turn can substantially reduce financial security, wealth, retirement readiness and other aspects of economic well-being.
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CONCLUSION
America made significant progress in reducing social and economic disparities in the latter half of the 20th century, as discriminatory policies like segregation, redlining, employment discrimination and restricted voting rights were outlawed. Black Americans have achieved success in many visible fields, from sports and entertainment to politics. That said, there are still deep inequities across social and economic indicators that will take awareness and concerted effort to address.
Black Americans have made more progress in the 21st century in reducing gaps in educational attainment than in other areas. At the secondary level, the shares of Black and White young adults who have dropped out are falling and converging, while the shares of Black and White adults with high school diplomas or GEDs are rising and converging. Black Americans have made progress in attaining postsecondary education as well, doubling the share of Black college graduates since 1990.
However, very deep social and economic inequities persist. Many Americans are poorly aware of the magnitude of these entrenched problems. In many years, Blacks experience recession-like conditions even in an economy in which others thrive. Blacks suffer about twice the unemployment rate as Whites. The typical Black household earns about $29,000 less annual income than its White counterpart. Black children are three times as likely as white children to grow up in poverty, and they are much more likely to remain there.
Black Americans also face significant challenges in other areas that affect the quality of life and overall prosperity. Homeownership rates are stagnant among all Black households and are falling for Black millennials. Voting rights have once again been put in jeopardy in ways that disproportionately affect minority communities, making it more difficult for Blacks to advocate for better policies. Significant racial disparities in health outcomes remain, while the Trump administration makes it more difficult to access affordable health insurance.
There are few signs that these inequities will diminish in the near future or that market forces alone will address them. Bold economic policies will be necessary to improve the economic state of Black America moving into the future, but the first steps are to recognize just what progress has been made, and how much further we have yet to go.
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The Economic State of Black America in 2020
STATE CHART
Current Measures of Economic Well-Being for the Black Population by State (2018)
Unemployment Rate Median Household Income Poverty
Black Share of
State Black State Population
White, Not
Hispanic Black
White, Not
Hispanic Black
White, Not Hispanic
Alabama 26.7% 9.3% 4.2% $33,539 $58,257 27.7% 11.3% Alaska 3.4% 4.1% 4.9% $63,198 $83,245 11.3% 7.4% Arizona 4.7% 8.0% 4.5% $50,068 $64,876 19.5% 9.0% Arkansas 15.2% 8.2% 3.8% $30,769 $50,831 30.4% 13.5% California 5.8% 9.4% 4.6% $53,565 $87,078 19.4% 9.0% Colorado 4.2% 5.9% 3.5% $49,081 $77,732 18.0% 7.5% Idaho 0.7% N A 3.6% $41,326 $57,506 25.9% 10.2%
Connecticut 11.0% 9.5% 4.4% $50,113 $87,666 18.6% 6.1% Delaware 22.5% 9.3% 4.6% $44,666 $70,623 20.2% 8.3% District of Columbia 45.5% 14.3% 2.4% $45,193 $142,544 25.3% 6.4% Florida 16.0% 8.3% 4.4% $41,416 $61,446 21.2% 9.8% Georgia 31.6% 7.2% 3.8% $45,100 $68,055 20.0% 9.9% Hawaii 2.0% 11.2% 4.3% $70,185 $80,940 5.5% 9.3%
Illinois 14.1% 12.9% 3.9% $39,719 $72,280 24.8% 8.4% Indiana 9.5% 10.8% 3.7% $34,290 $59,587 26.8% 10.4% Iowa 3.6% 12.9% 3.0% $31,992 $61,540 30.7% 9.4% Kansas 5.9% 8.0% 3.2% $35,412 $61,447 25.3% 9.5% Kentucky 7.9% 9.6% 4.7% $35,565 $52,165 28.1% 15.4% Louisiana 32.4% 10.0% 4.5% $30,188 $59,942 30.0% 12.2% Maine 1.4% 5.5% 3.4% $48,840 $55,932 20.2% 11.0% Montana 0.5% N A 3.1% $41,981 $57,025 N A 11.4%
Maryland 30.0% 7.1% 3.7% $66,926 $93,745 13.2% 5.9% Massachusetts 7.8% 7.7% 4.0% $53,270 $86,087 17.9% 6.7% Michigan 13.8% 11.1% 4.3% $34,503 $61,331 27.4% 11.0% Minnesota 6.6% 7.6% 2.8% $36,849 $73,608 27.2% 7.0% Mississippi 38.0% 10.2% 5.3% $30,612 $55,820 30.7% 11.9% Missouri 11.5% 8.5% 3.6% $35,998 $57,999 25.7% 11.0%
Nebraska 4.7% 9.0% 2.9% $37,986 $62,422 23.7% 8.5% Nevada 9.2% 8.3% 4.8% $40,560 $66,540 21.5% 8.9% New Hampshire 1.7% 9.1% 3.3% $47,625 $75,948 27.5% 6.7% New Jersey 13.6% 9.0% 4.1% $55,072 $93,031 16.2% 5.5% New Mexico 2.2% 6.9% 4.3% $29,629 $58,981 26.7% 11.7% New York 15.7% 8.2% 3.7% $48,347 $77,897 20.0% 9.1% North Carolina 21.4% 7.8% 3.9% $38,597 $61,695 21.1% 9.8% North Dakota 3.4% 13.0% 2.2% $45,802 $67,352 25.1% 8.8% Ohio 12.4% 9.5% 4.1% $33,590 $61,056 28.7% 10.8% South Dakota 2.2% N A 1.9% $43,686 $60,239 15.5% 8.4%
Oklahoma 7.3% 8.0% 3.7% $35,887 $56,312 27.6% 12.3% Oregon 2.0% 5.5% 4.8% $46,076 $65,236 20.1% 11.1% Pennsylvania 11.2% 11.3% 3.8% $37,201 $65,326 26.1% 8.7% Puerto Rico 12.5% 17.6% 9.6% $19,476 $26,840 44.7% 38.7% Vermont 1.2% N A 3.6% $40,509 $62,235 13.4% 10.5%
Rhode Island 6.7% 7.6% 4.6% $48,961 $71,366 17.9% 8.3% South Carolina 26.6% 8.0% 4.1% $34,576 $61,600 25.4% 10.0%
Tennessee 16.8% 10.0% 4.5% $36,533 $56,968 26.4% 12.0% Texas 12.3% 7.4% 4.1% $45,545 $74,509 19.6% 8.5% Wyoming 0.6% N A 3.8% $88,951 $62,507 N A 9.8%
Utah 1.3% 6.7% 3.0% $44,090 $75,399 20.9% 7.2%
Virginia 19.2% 6.7% 3.5% $50,064 $78,745 17.4% 8.5% Washington 3.9% 7.4% 3.9% $55,661 $76,521 20.0% 8.2% West Virginia 3.8% 10.8% 5.6% $30,925 $44,840 28.6% 17.1% Wisconsin 6.4% 7.6% 2.7% $30,798 $63,906 31.8% 8.4%
Source: JEC Democratic staff analysis based on 2018 American Community Survey 1-Year Estimates
Note: Black refers to African American or Black not in combination with any other race. White, Not Hispanic refers to White not in combination with any other race without Hispanic or Latino ethnicity.
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ENDNOTES
1 The White House. (2019). “Remarks by President Trump in State of the Union Address.” https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/remarks-president-trump-state-union-address-2/.
2Joint Economic Committee. (2019). “Full Employment and Stable Prices: Pursuing the Dual Mandate in a Changing Economy.” https://www.jec.senate.gov/public/_cache/files/0fc5c5fd-8c02-4d26-a11a 31c6d9d99353/full-employment-and-stable-prices-final-version1.pdf.
3 Wight, V. R., Bianchi, S. M. and Hunt, B. R. (2013). “Explaining Racial/Ethnic Variation in Partnered Women's and Men's Housework: Does One Size Fit All?” Journal of Family Issues, 34(3), 394–427. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4242524/.
4 Banks, N. (2019). “Black women’s labor market history reveals deep-seated race and gender discrimination.” Economic Policy Institute. https://www.epi.org/blog/black-womens-labor-market history-reveals-deep-seated-race-and-gender-discrimination/.
5 Bertrand, M. and Mullainathan, S. (2004). “Are Emily and Greg More Employable than Lakisha and Jamal? A Field Experiment on Labor Market Discrimination.” American Economic Review, v94 (4, Sep), 991-1013. https://www.nber.org/papers/w9873.
6 Quillian, L., Pager, D., Hexel, O. and Midtbøen, A. H. (2017). “Meta-analysis of field experiments shows no change in racial discrimination in hiring over time.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 114(41), 10870-10875. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28900012.
7Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies. (2017). “Race & Jobs at High Risk to Automation.” https://jointcenter.org/race-jobs-at-high-risk-to-automation/.
8 Couch, K. A. and Fairlie, R. (2010). “Last Hired, First Fired? Black-White Unemployment and the Business Cycle.” Demography, 47(1), 227–247.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3000014/.
9 U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2015). Data Retrieval: Labor Force Statistics (CPS). Table 1. Union affiliation of employed wage and salary workers by selected characteristics.
https://www.bls.gov/webapps/legacy/cpslutab1.htm.
10 U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2020). Economic News Release. Table 2. Median weekly earnings of full-time wage and salary workers by union affiliation and selected characteristics. https://www.bls.gov/news.release/union2.t02.htm.
11 Spievack, N. (2019). “Can labor unions help close the black-white wage gap?” Urban Wire: Job Market ad Labor Force. Urban Institute. https://www.urban.org/urban-wire/can-labor-unions-help close-black-white-wage-gap.
12 History. (2018). “A. Philip Randolph.” https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/a-philip randolph.
13 The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute. “Poor People’s Campaign.” Stanford University. https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/poor-peoples-campaign.
14 U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2015). Data Retrieval: Labor Force Statistics (CPS). Table 1. Union affiliation of employed wage and salary workers by selected characteristics. https://www.bls.gov/webapps/legacy/cpslutab1.htm; U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2019). TED: The Economics Daily. “Union membership rate 10.5 percent in 2018, down from 20.1 percent in 1983.” https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2019/union-membership-rate-10-point-5-percent-in-2018-down from-20-point-1-percent-in-1983.htm.
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15 Joint Economic Committee. (2020, January 20). “The State of Economic Progress for Black Americans: Martin Luther King Day 2020.” https://www.jec.senate.gov/public/_cache/files/9a226c5c 88ad-4fd1-a3d4-7a3ac94cd1cc/state-of-economic-progress-for-black-americans-mlk-2020-final.pdf.
16 Gould, E. (2019, February 20). “State of Working America Wages 2018: Wage inequality marches on—and is even threatening data reliability.” https://www.epi.org/publication/state-of-american wages-2018/.
17 U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2019, March). Characteristics of Minimum Wage Workers, 2018. https://www.bls.gov/opub/reports/minimum-wage/2018/pdf/home.pdf.
18 Congressional Budget Office. (2019, July). “The Effects on Employment and Family Income of Increasing the Federal Minimum Wage.” https://www.cbo.gov/system/files/2019-07/CBO-55410- MinimumWage2019.pdf.
19 Wilson, V. (2019, February 13). “The Raise the Wage Act of 2019 would give black workers a much needed boost in pay.” https://www.epi.org/publication/the-raise-the-wage-act-of-2019-would-give-black workers-a-much-needed-boost-in-pay/.
20 Williams, J. and Wilson, V. (2019, August 27). “Black workers endure persistent racial disparities in employment outcomes.” https://www.epi.org/publication/labor-day-2019-racial-disparities-in employment/.
21 Joint Economic Committee. (2020, January 20). “The State of Economic Progress for Black Americans: Martin Luther King Day 2020.” https://www.jec.senate.gov/public/_cache/files/9a226c5c 88ad-4fd1-a3d4-7a3ac94cd1cc/state-of-economic-progress-for-black-americans-mlk-2020-final.pdf.
22 Tucker, J. (2019, March). “Women and the Lifetime Wage Gap: How Many Woman Years Does It Take to Equal 40 Man Years.” https://nwlc-ciw49tixgw5lbab.stackpathdns.com/wp content/uploads/2019/03/Women-and-the-Lifetime-Wage-Gap-v1.pdf.
23 McGrew, W. (2018, August 28). “How workplace segregation fosters wage discrimination for African American women.” https://equitablegrowth.org/how-workplace-segregation-fosters-wage-discrimination for-african-american-women/.
24 Matthews, M. and Wilson, V. (2018, August 6). “Separate is still unequal: How patterns of occupational segregation impact pay for black women.” https://www.epi.org/blog/separate-is-still unequal-how-patterns-of-occupational-segregation-impact-pay-for-black-women/.
25 U.S. Census Bureau. (2019, August 27). Historical Poverty Table 2: Poverty Status of People by Family Relationship, Race, and Hispanic Origin - 1959 to 2018.
https://www.census.gov/data/tables/time-series/demo/income-poverty/historical-poverty-people.html.
26 Cooper, D. (2018, June 21). “Workers of color are far more likely to be paid poverty-level wages than white workers.” https://www.epi.org/blog/workers-of-color-are-far-more-likely-to-be-paid-poverty-level wages-than-white-workers/.
27 U.S. Census Bureau. (2019, August 27). Historical Poverty Table 3: Poverty Status of People by Age, Race, and Hispanic Origin - 1959 to 2018. https://www.census.gov/data/tables/time-series/demo/income poverty/historical-poverty-people.html.
28 National Center for Education Statistics. (2019, May). “The Condition of Education 2019.” https://nces.ed.gov/pubs2019/2019144.pdf.
29 Duncan, G. J. and Magnuson, K. (2011). “The long reach of early childhood poverty.” Pathways. https://inequality.stanford.edu/sites/default/files/PathwaysWinter11_Duncan.pdf.
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30 Reeves, R. V. and Pulliam, C. (2019, April 29). “No room at the top: The stark divide in black and white economic mobility.” https://www.brookings.edu/blog/up-front/2019/02/14/no-room-at-the-top the-stark-divide-in-black-and-white-economic-mobility/.
31 Joint Economic Committee. (2019). “The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.” https://www.jec.senate.gov/public/_cache/files/d657a411-2fd3-4570-b352-ff86ab54aa16/supplemental nutrition-assistance-program---jec.pdf.
32 Joint Economic Committee. (2020, January 20). The State of Economic Progress for Black Americans: Martin Luther King Day 2020. https://www.jec.senate.gov/public/_cache/files/9a226c5c-88ad-4fd1-a3d4- 7a3ac94cd1cc/state-of-economic-progress-for-black-americans-mlk-2020-final.pdf.
33 Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve. (2019, December 23). Distribution of household wealth in the U.S. since 1989.
https://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/z1/dataviz/dfa/distribute/chart/#quarter:120;series:Net%20wo rth;demographic:race;population:1,3;units:levels;range:1989.3,2019.3.
34 Kraus, M. W., Onyeador, I. N., Daumeyer, N. M., Rucker, J. M. and Richeson, J. A. (2019). “The Misperception of Racial Economic Inequality.” Perspectives on Psychological Science, 14(6), 899– 921. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691619863049.
35 Asante-Muhammad, D., Collins, C., Hoxie, J. and Nieves, E. (2017). “The Road to Zero Wealth: How the Racial Wealth Divide Is Hollowing Out America’s Middle Class.” Prosperity Now. https://prosperitynow.org/sites/default/files/PDFs/road_to_zero_wealth.pdf.
36 Hamilton, D. and Darity, W. A. (2017). “The political economy of education, financial literacy, and the racial wealth gap.” Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Review, First Quarter 2017, 99(1), pp. 59- 76. http://dx.doi.org/10.20955/r.2017.59-76.
37 Lee, T. (2019, August 14). “How America’s Vast Racial Wealth Gap Grew: By Plunder.” https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/08/14/magazine/racial-wealth-gap.html.
38 Sullivan, L., Meschede, T., Shapiro, T. and Escobar, F. (2019, September). “Stalling Dreams: How Student Debt is Disrupting Life Chances and Widening the Racial Wealth Gap.” https://www.insidehighered.com/sites/default/server_files/media/Stalling Dreams.pdf.
39 Joint Economic Committee. (2019). Retirement Insecurity.
https://www.jec.senate.gov/public/_cache/files/bafb9923-7f9a-40ad-b287-4722b8b979cd/retirement insecurity-jec.pdf.
40 Bayer, P., Ferreira, F. and Ross, S. (2014). “Race, Ethnicity and High-Cost Mortgage Lending.” National Bureau of Economic Research. https://www.nber.org/papers/w20762.pdf.
41 Cilluffo, A., Geiger, A.W. and Fry, R. 2017. “More U.S. households are rending than at any point in 50 years.” Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/07/19/more-u-s households-are-renting-than-at-any-point-in-50-years/.
42 McFarland, J., Hussar, B., Zhang, J., Wang, X., Wang, K., Hein, S., Diliberti, M., Cataldi, E. F., Mann, F. B., Barmer, A., Nachazel, T., Barnett, M. and Purcell, S. (2019). “The Condition of Education 2019.” National Center for Education Statistics. https://nces.ed.gov/pubs2019/2019144.pdf.
43 Shapiro, D., Dundar, A., Huie, F., Wakhungu, P. K., Bhimdiwala, A. and Wilson, S. E. (2018). Completing College: “A National View of Student Completion Rates—Fall 2012 Cohort.” National Student Clearinghouse. https://nscresearchcenter.org/wp-content/uploads/SignatureReport16.pdf.
44 Reardon, S. F., Weathers, E. S., Fahle, E. M., Jang, H. and Kalogrides, D. (2019). “Is Separate Still Unequal? New Evidence on School Segregation and Racial Academic Achievement Gaps.” (CEPA Working Paper No. 19-06). Stanford Center for Education Policy Analysis.
https://cepa.stanford.edu/sites/default/files/wp19-06-v092019.pdf.
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45 Ibid.
46 McFarland, J., Hussar, B., Zhang, J., Wang, X., Wang, K., Hein, S., Diliberti, M., Cataldi, E. F., Mann, F. B., Barmer, A., Nachazel, T., Barnett, M., and Purcell, S. (2019). “The Condition of Education 2019. National Center for Education Statistics.” https://nces.ed.gov/pubs2019/2019144.pdf.
47 Rothstein, R. (2014). “The Racial Achievement Gap, Segregated Schools, and Segregated Neighborhoods—A Constitutional Insult.” Economic Policy Institute.
https://www.epi.org/publication/the-racial-achievement-gap-segregated-schools-and-segregated neighborhoods-a-constitutional-insult/.
48 de Brey, C., Musu, L., McFarland, J., Wilkinson-Flicker, S., Diliberti, M., Zhang, A., Branstetter, C. and Wang, X. (2019). “Status and Trends in the Education of Racial and Ethnic Groups 2018.” National Center for Education Statistics. https://nces.ed.gov/pubs2019/2019038.pdf.
49 Sosina, V. E. and Weathers, E. S. (2019). “Pathways to Inequality: Between-District Segregation and Racial Disparities in School District Expenditures.” AERA Open.
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/2332858419872445.
50 Ibid.
51 EdBuild. (2019). $23 Billion. https://edbuild.org/content/23-billion/full-report.pdf.
52 Broh, B. A. (2002). “Linking Extracurricular Programming to Academic Achievement: Who Benefits and Why?” American Sociological Association.
https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/3090254.pdf.
53 Equal Justice Initiative. (2019). “United States Still Has Highest Incarceration Rate in the World.” https://eji.org/news/united-states-still-has-highest-incarceration-rate-world/.
54 Bronson, J. and Carson, E. A. (2019). “Prisoners in 2017.” U.S. Department of Justice Office of Justice Programs, Bureau of Justice Statistics. NCJ 252156.
https://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/p17.pdf.
55 The Sentencing Project. (2018). “Report to the United Nations on Racial Disparities in the U.S. Criminal Justice System.” https://www.sentencingproject.org/publications/un-report-on-racial disparities/.
56 The Sentencing Project. “Criminal Justice Facts.” https://www.sentencingproject.org/criminal-justice facts/; Edwards, F., Lee, H. and Esposito, M. (2019). “Risk of being killed by police use-of-force in the U.S. by age, race/ethnicity, and sex.” National Academy of Sciences.
https://www.prisonpolicy.org/scans/police_mort_open.pdf.
57 Bronson, J. and Carson, E. A. (2019). “Prisoners in 2017.” U.S. Department of Justice Office of Justice Programs, Bureau of Justice Statistics. NCJ 252156.
https://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/p17.pdf.
58 American Civil Liberties Union. “Fair Sentencing Act.” https://www.aclu.org/issues/criminal-law reform/drug-law-reform/fair-sentencing-act.
59 Western, B. and Sirois, C. (2019). “Racialized Re-entry: Labor Market Inequality After Incarceration.” Social Forces, 97(4), 1517-1542.
https://justicelab.columbia.edu/sites/default/files/content/laborinequity.pdf.
60 Pager, D. (2003). “The Mark of a Criminal Record.” American Journal of Sociology, 108(5), 937- 975. https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/pager/files/pager_ajs.pdf.
61 Strauss, V. (2017). “Mass incarceration of African Americans affects the racial achievement gap — report.” The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-
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62 Liptak, A. (2013). “Supreme Court Invalidates Key Part of Voting Rights Act.” The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/26/us/supreme-court-ruling.html.
63 Nadler, B. (2018). “Voting rights become a flashpoint in Georgia governor’s race.” The Associated Press. https://apnews.com/fb011f39af3b40518b572c8cce6e906c.
64 Berman, A. (2019). “How Gerrymandering and Voter Suppression Paved the Way for Abortion Bans.” Mother Jones. https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2019/05/gerrymandering-voter suppression-abortion-heartbeat-bills/.
65 Wines, M. (2019). “A Census Whodunit: Why Was the Citizenship Question Added?” The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/30/us/census-citizenship-question-hofeller.html.
66 National Center for Health Statistics (2019). Health, United States, 2018. Table 4. https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/hus/2018/004.pdf.
67 Ibid.
68 Kolata, G. (2017). “Black Americans Are Living Longer, C.D.C. Reports.” The New York Times. www.nytimes.com/2017/05/02/health/black-americans-death-rate-cdc-study.html.
69 Bosworth, B. (2018). “Increasing disparities in mortality by socioeconomic status.” Annual Review of Public Health. (39, 237-251). https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/pdf/10.1146/annurev-publhealth 040617-014615;
Michael Geruso. (2012). “Racial Disparities in Life Expectancy: How Much Can the Standard SES Variables Explain?” Springer on behalf of the Population Association of America. https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/23252468.pdf?refreqid=excelsior%3Aba86531f258051705fa1482bf8 5e6e29.
70 Phelan, J. C. and Link, B. G. (2015). “Is Racism a Fundamental Cause of Inequalities in Health?” Annual Review of Sociology. (41, 311-330).
https://chq.org/phocadownload/ChqFoundation/2019SIRMaterials/5_Racism-as-a-fundamental cause_Phelan-and-Link_2015.pdf.
71 Williams, D. R. and Collins, C. (2001). “Racial Residential Segregation: A Fundamental Cause of Racial Disparities in Health.” Public Health Reports. (116(5): 404-16).
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1497358/pdf/12042604.pdf.
72 Institute of Medicine (U.S.) Committee on the Consequences of Uninsurance. (2002). “Care Without Coverage: Too Little, Too Late.” National Academies Press. 3, Effects of Health Insurance on Health. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK220636/.
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