National Urban League Publishes 2024 “State of Black America” Equity Index Report

The National Urban League has published their “State of Black America” report for 2024. Six decades after the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the report identifies sectors where inequality persists, areas of progress, and the actions President Biden has taken to advance racial equality in America. The “State of Black America” report calculates an equity index between Black and White Americans by analyzing five sub-indexes: economics, health, education, social justice, and civic engagement. The 2024 equity index of 75.7 percent is an increase of 1.8 percent from the 2022 index of 73.9 percent. The sub-index with the most parity between Black and White Americans was civic engagement, with an equity index of 95.6 percent. The social justice sub-index reflected the largest gap in equality with an index of 55.7 percent. However, while the social justice category reflected the lowest equity index, it has seen a significant increase from 2000 when the index was only 26.2 percent. While the equity index remains less than 100 percent, there have been areas of improvement for Black equality in the United States. The percentage of Black students who dropped out of high school decreased from 13.1 percent in 2000 to 3.9 percent in 2024....