Not All Black and White: The Factors Behind Racial Inequality Stats

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PJMedia:

WASHINGTON – While racial inequality has largely disappeared and the nation has grown wealthier and better educated, the economic disparities between blacks and whites remain relatively unchanged since marchers assembled in Washington five decades ago.

 

The country recently celebrated the 50-year anniversary of the historic civil-rights gathering at which Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered a stirring speech that articulated the dream of many Americans who yearned for racial equality.

 

The event, known as the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, was not only for racial equality; it was also a call for better access to everything the thriving American economy had to offer.

The Washington marchers made several economic demands, including a higher federal minimum wage, a law barring discrimination by employers, and a massive job-training program. In January 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson launched the set of policies that became known as the ‘War on Poverty’ to meet some of those demands. Later that year, Congress enacted the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which ended racial segregation in education, employment, and voting facilities. In 1966, the Johnson administration increased the federal minimum wage.

The changing economic landscape in the following decades after the civil-rights movement saw improved conditions for all Americans, and by some measures, black Americans have seen clear improvements. More blacks are finishing high school and more are in college than at any point in history. As of the last presidential election, blacks are more likely to vote than any other racial group in America. The gap in life expectancy rates among blacks and whites has narrowed in the past five decades.

Yet, blacks remain likelier than whites to be unemployed, be poor, get arrested and serve time in prison.