This conversation took place in washington, d. C. And runs an hour and half. [applause] thank you very much. Good morning. Good morning. Im going to take a quick seat, is that ok . Yes, i am still working through trying to compete in the nba dunk contest. Yes, next year. ■8first of all thank you for joining us this morning. Lets thank rhonda spears bell. [applause] and by longterm partner and colleae heorleans, the u. S. Conf mayors, now the National Urban league. Now an ordained elder. [applause] i always called her evangelist. Lets give it up for rhonda spears bell. And a warm thanks ty billington and johnson johnson. I use their products this morning. ■zbut most importantly, i appreciated you making the connection between executives and the National Urban league. It reaffirms the role that nul play in Opening Doors to Corporate America a long time ago, before it was inclusion. I will get to that a little later. Second, i want to welcome, raise your hdsle affiliate leaders from across the country. Give a way, give a wave and a hand. Those in the audience, those who are watching, this is the heart and soul of our work. Men andom talented, highly committed, on the ground, 92 commune is across the nation, collectively year with direct services. Give it up for our affiliate leaders, thank you all. Also, they are supported by a number of volunteer groups. Affiliate board members. Each affiliate has its own board. Any affiliate board member in the room, raise your hand. We want to acknowledge you, we want to thank you so much for being here. And doing the work as volunteers then there is the historic guild, all the way back in 1942, a woman with passion and style by the name of molly had a vision. Days, even though we had women executives in the 1920s, women were not afforded a full role in the executive molly moon said we will serve as volunteers and built the guild as a volunteer corps, with chapters across the world. I know several of you are here. [applause] thank you all very much. And then guess what . It is the 25th anniversary of the nati. 25 years with 25 years y, the Young Professionals. We want to salute you guys. Stand up. We are saluting all of our Young Professionals. We appreciate what they brought. Multiples of thousands, volunteer work, advocacy, participation in lpc. The Young Professionals have made a huge difference in the urban league movement. I want to thank you all and we are just starting. We are going to continue to grow. With us thisbuilding, maybe some room, we have a number of students who are part of our b our Business Executive exchange program. Are the students we have one or two studentlet me make sure e from the dmv who are with usnly today. They are here from howard. [applause] delaware state. Had morgan state. And morgan state. Give making a difference in the lives of our people. I want to salute them and thank them and i will be extending i will be spending some it is a. Honor. To be able to present the state of black america. It is always important for people to know, what emanated, where did this notion of a report on the state of black america come from . It was 1976. We anticipate in a few days the president will give the state of the Union Address. A very important time w vision, and execution for the nation. 1976, the late great Vernon Jordan held this position, a person on stand, sd watched president for deliver the early 1976 state of the Union Address. He listened intently and carefully to the president. President fords address for the most part painted a picture of america where there were no black people. A picture of america where there were no poor p where for the most part that for the most part ignored the trials and of locked out and left out communities. No mention of poverty, no mention of civil rights, no mention of cities. Ica whatsoever. No mention of the raging recession that was taking place in the middle of 1970s. President ford painted a false because it was incomplete when things are incomplete, they are false. Picture of the nation. So Vernon Jordan, in his inimitable way, sat down and said im going to in effect prepare myt. [laughter] you know. Theres always a choice adjective. When a great leader talks. He pulled together a group of scholars, africanamerican scholars and others, to print mt with analysis, diagnosis, and recommendations on the nation. That was the beginning of the state of black america. Today it is an honor to be able to now for almost 50 years later , for me to be able to present to you our thinking on what is the state of black america. So simply america is not on our watch. Not on our watch will we allow the progress and against and the essence of the work that■u]w■ af americans, many generations of civil rights leaders, to be eroded i divisive negative hateful effort, which is designed to erase the last 70 years of american history. So stay with me. The state of black america is strongbecause we are strong. The state of black america is proud ca the state of black america is resilient. We can take bumps and bruises and stumbles and falls and putdowns and keep on working. Not just a comment on the state of black america. It is a comment on the state of the nation. On the state of the union. The challenge we face are not challenges we only face. They are faced broadly in other communities. Disproportionate to our community. We cannot allow anyone to hijack our place when we speak about the state of black america. We are speaking about the state of the nation. The nation. Say the nation. The nation. So this years report has three components to it. And if you will, let me walk through these. I think it is important to understand what we did this. So understanding that this represents the 60th anniversary since the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. It is important for us to understandabout all of these ise are standing on this fouio cart. An american magna carta which was passed in 1964 after a long fight and a long struggle that went all the way back to the civil war. After the civil war, when the nation amended its close duchenne amended its constitution, they added a section that said Congress Shall enforce this amendment by appropriate legislation. ]j late 1860s. What happened along that journey is instructive to today. The first Civil Rights Act that was passed, the Civil Rights Act of 1866, was twice vetoed by then president johnson. It became law because the congress overrode his veto. The second Civil Rights Act was passed in 1875. That act interestingly looks a lot like the 1964 act. We got to teach a little bitthak down by the United States supreme court. E preme courts character, meaning who sat on the court, changed as a result of the 1876 election. So here was the supremeourt, less than 20 years after the civil war, declaring a piece of ed to enforce the constitution as unconstitutional. From that point forward■f, 1883, this very same court in another if you will judicial coup, in 1896, declared separate but equal the law of the land. And banished black people to a secondclass status for some 70 years. Im connecting dots because as things go, things repeat themselves. We need to understan that while those who are battling our progress are following a historical map as well, and we must understand that historic roadmap. From 1896 all the way until 1964, the civil rights leaders, the civil rights century began o think and imagine and work on how they could pass a new civil rights law. And this ferguson decision gave rise to the creation in naacp. Gave rise to the creation in 1910 of a National Urban league and many other organizations. I want to bring us to 1964. Because 1964 and the passage of the Civil Rights Acthere was a t of enlightenment by the members of the United States congress. Because of serendipitous osmosis. There was a movement beginning when that courageous woman refused to give up her seat in montgomery, alabama, of direct action. That movement was supported by an aggressive strategy in the courts that Thurgood Marshall and others architected to try to knock down these walls. It was litigation andour predecx stood 1963 with 250,000 americans at that great march on washington. They had a demand. We want a Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights act and we want it now. So we come forward. Im going to i have been asked on a number of news shows, what has happened . Has the Civil Rights Act worked . I looked at theboth women and as and other people of colorrace t all of these great media organizations and i say, you would not be here. Not just the africanamericans, but the women. And the latinos and asians and others. You would not be here. But for the civil rights of 1964. So cynics and sometimes what i call polite prevaricate orprevay nothing has changed. I say,■ well, were you living n 1964 . If we suggest nothing has and, we e disrespecting the work of many. And it took a Martin Luther king and a Whitney Young, it took a malcolm x and it took a rosa parks and Thurgood Marshall, it took the uaw supporting the march on washington, it took on Baines Johnson who knew how to break a 17 year we dont know how many projects he promised. We donknow how many deals he cut. Whenever he did, it worked. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 passed. Were progenitors of that work. Index. Cond part of this state o each and every year for the past 20 years, we have said, lets put the facts when it social and Economic Conditions out there so we can understand clearly what the comparativeto the social anc conditions of black americans and white americans so we are not handing a discussion wit ond we have brilliant opinions, and we are not having a discussion with misinformation and lying that goes on when it comes to progress or lack thereof. In this nation. Part of this report is a rep p biden. And whether he has lived up to the promises he made in writing on biden. We wanted to look at it so people can understand because those several of here in here are elected, some of you are former elected, what counts is that■w politics are about roman. I make a promise, you buy into it, and i keep it. Not about, well, im changing my promises every day. Backing off three and coming up with two more new ones. We decided we wanted to look t that. We had evaluated obama. In a world of great rhetoric, the this world of great rhetoric, we need to have a factual basis. What the urban league seeks tod, whether it is the equality index, now the biden progress you can discuss it. You can challenge it if need be. T we are just presenting the facts. So those are the threeof the sta report. Can we talk a little bit about the Civil Rights Act of 1964 . S talk about what the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which had seions in it, seven sections in it, which sought to open the doors to both employment and public accommodations, there were provisions on voting, a provision money, so that act, lets look at some of the changes, topline changes. I have referenced these in american life. What happened in Corporate America . So, 1964. Their brassie can zero women. Weow have there were zero black and zero women. Im not going to suggest to you we can be be satisfied with the number we have. But it is important to point out the change. These dynamic women and africanamericans who lead these companies are competent and qualified and outstanding, and behind them, their legions of Vice President and senior Vice President s. Do not get me wrong. The fact weig this does not suggest satisfaction. That is not what it suggests. It suggests this act has made a bit of a difference in this area. Lets look at the political community. States. This was enhanced by the 1964 act. And the 1965 Voting Rights act. When the Civil Rights Act past, there were five blacks. Powell of new york. Los angeles. Along with bobphiladelphia, ands of detroit. And john conyers of detroit. Those were the six. The africanamericans who were members of the congress at that time. Now there are 60 africanamericans, 18 asian americans, 54 latinos, five native americans, 150 women. Applause. [applause] that deserves applause. I wanted to pointhis out because once again, has there been progress . Far more progress here then on thcorporbecause this owes to thr of the vote. This owes to political engagement. This owes to involvement and beyond these, there are a large number of members of congress who are not black, not asian american, not latino, not native american, who africanamerican and latino voters are essential to their coalition. They could not win if they cannot put a coalition that included our communities together. Lets give that a big round of applause. [applause] im alwaysat that. So the Civil Rights Act has made a difference. But the currentrnenges that we face, i want to put this in this context. Of 2020. Covid was two months old. We were all watching television. And then the iphone video that the young in minneapolis took was flashed across our screens. We■h saw george floyd we sawa man■ die. Before our eyes. Ourhj eye. [inaudible] which one is working . This neither. Let me talk loud. So, we saw that on the streets spontaneously spontaneously there were protests around the world. I remember we new zealand, hungary, the united kingdom. There was anwaning and a reckoning. I know my time is tight, but ive got to tell you ao;story b. I got a letter. She said theres a i think you need to look at this. So i open this letter, handwritten letter from someone i went to middle school and i attended a middle school where i was the first africanamerican students to attend and i was the only one in my class for four straight years. It was an apology letter from someone who had been an upperclassman in seventh or eighth grade when i was in fifth grade, for bullying, calling me i guess they called micro aggression, it is a macro aggres. But he said in the letter that he was compelled to write the letter because of what happened to george floyd and that it had forced him to reexamine who he is and what he is about. No return address, but i found him. [laughter] i only make that reference so we understand how powerful the moment was with people, corporations, foundations and government making commitments. Strong commitment. Fastforward to today, not on our watch. Not on our watch■g we watch thoo make commitments all of a sudden gain the lion of the wizard of oz and walk away. Not on our watch will we be si■lent while people run for office, the wealthy hedge fund people, women who are president s of major universities. Say what you really meant. You can say what you want, but dont say that. This is the moment that we find ourselves in. We find ourselves in a where over 1,000 proposals since 2022 suppress the vote to make iteople to vote, targeted at a black people into latinos and poor people and disabled americans and Older Americans and students with a cover story, and fly that somehow the system is riddled wi fraud. We have to be clear that these arguments today are also going to involve cover misrepresentation, misstatement of facts, invention of■1 facts, distraction from the truth and definition of■8 the nation to ban books. Toni morrison . Come on maya angelou . Come on. Ralph ellison . To ban books as though these students are not going to go to barnes and noble to pick them up. Where they are not going t online and say they want to ban them i want to read them about thatmuch more. The absurdity of it all is that theres now a pushback. But while half the■m■ states he engaged in proposals to suppress the vote, im happy to tell you have passed legislation to expand access to vote that introduced the voting and did things to make■ it easi s is not simply that there is one side of the ledger and not on other side of the ledger. Every you retreating on the diversity equity and inclusion, there may be three or four more who say im into double down, im going to stand and remain we have to understand and not get caught in the glass half empty mentality. We cannot fight a battle if we do not have a mindset that we are stronger because our case is right andog that our friends and allies and ourselves are lying to make this quickly, we index at approximately 76 of where white americansk at the index. Heres the thing you see an improvement in the last few years. That improvement is probably the largest twoyear improvement that weve seen in past. However, at this■v pace, paritys 180 years away. Now, keep this in perspective. We are like a caboose on a train so over the last 50 years as the high school gat up, yes it has. Give a hand. [applause] but the rate for white americans has imprednd bad thing but we remain behind. Ditto for the college rate and for many areas we made progress, but weve not made relative to the overall improvements in the country, and that is the paradox of this index. I wanted to show you these five areas so tha youe c that when it comes to economics, we are lacking. When it comes to social justice which includes the criminal justice system, we are lacking. These are areas that have been stubborn, persistent, and i would argue they are connected in many respects. So, what we need to do is understand these numbers and use is a tool for conversations and policymaking and leadersp. T, journalists, businesspeople, labor leaders, politicians to know these numbers and unders joe biden. So, joe biden when as a Civil Rights Community you will remember when we got onak to him and its our practice to return to speak to anybody running, but we are not going to chase you.