League held a discussion on civil rights, specifically youth specific participation and mobilizing the black community to vote in the upcoming elections. The conversation took place in washington, d. C. And runs about an hour and half. ■■, [applause] thank you very much. Morni morning. Im going to take a quick seat. Is that okay . Through trying to compete in the contest. [laughter] next year. First of all, thank you very much for joining us. Lets think the bill. [applause] and a longtime partner and colleague working at the u. S. Conference of mayors and now at the league as an ordained elder. Always cold and evangelist. Lets give it up. And a warm thanks for courtney and johnson johnson. I use the product this morning. But most importantly, i appreciated you taking the connection between the National Urban league that reaffirms the partnership and reaffirms the role played in Opening Doors to Corporate America a long time ago. Before it was called diversity, equity and inclusion. And i will get to that a little later. A second, i want to welcome,■s raise your hand urban League Affiliate leaders from across the country. Give a wave and a hand. [applause] those in the audience and those who are watching, this is the heart and soul of ourork. Men and women, highly talented, highly committed on the ground in the areas across the nation collectively. They are touching 3 Million People year with direct services. Give it up for the affiliate leaders. [applause] and also, they are supported by a number of groups, affiliate board members. Each affiliate had its own board, any members here in the room please raise your hand. We want to acknowledge you and thank you so much for being here and for your work as volunteers. Then there is the historic National Urban league all the way back in 1942. A woman of passion and style had a vision and in those days, even though we had women executives in the 20s, women were not afford aole in the movement. Molly said we will serve and built as a volunteer corps across the nation. Raise your hand. I know several of you are here. U all very, very much. And then guess what. Its the 25th anniversary of the urban league Young Professionals. [applause] 25 years young. Youve got to stand up. All of our Young Professionals and we are going to have a celebration in new orleans. We appreciate what they brought. Volunteer work, the Young Professionals that made a difference in the urban league movement, and i want to thank you all. We are just starting and we will continue to grow and then with us here in the building and maybe some in the room, we had a number of students tha are a part of our Business Executive stage program. Any students here are they otherwise engaged we have one or two students here. [applause] let me make sure i get the schoolsm the dmv who are with us tonight and they are here from howard state, delaware state and morgan state. Give it up. Great universities making a difference in the lives of our people, and i want to salute to them and thank them and i will be spending some time with them a little bit later. Its an honor, always an honor to be able to present the state of black america. And it is always important for people to know whate did this ne report, the state of black america come from and it was 1976 we anticipate in a few days the president will give a state of the Union Address. Very important time when y United States on his position and execution for the nation. 1976 in the late great legend held this position and a person on the shoulders i stand sat down and watched prison Forward Union address, he listened the intently and carefully to president ford. President most part painted the picture of america where there were no black people. A picture where there were no poor people. A picture of america that for the most part ignored the trials and travails of locked out and left out communities. No mention of poverty, no mention of cities, no mention of the raging recession twas taking place in the middle 1970s. President ford painted a false, because when things are incomplete, they are false, picture of nation. So Vernon Jordan sat down and said im going to prepare my own report. [laughter] a choice adjective when our great leaders talk. He pulled together a group of scholars, africanamerican scholars and others to print what was a report with both analysis, diagnosis and recommendations on the future of the nation and that was the beginning of the state of black america. Ando 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. It is not on our watch. Not on our watch when allow the progress and the games and the very essence of the work that has been done by many generations of americans, many generations of civil rights leaders and black americans to be ero pernicious divisive, negative, hateful effort which is designed to erase the last 70 years in american history. So stay with me. The state of black america is strong because we are strong. The state is proud because we are proud. The state of black america is resilient because we can take the bumps and bruises and slips and stumbles and falls and putdowns and keep on. The state of black america is not just a comment on the state of black america. It is a comment on st o the stae union the challenges thate face are not always challenges that we only face. They are faced in other communities. Many times the challenges are disproportionate to our community. So we cant allow anyone to hijack our voice when we speak about the state of black americe of the nation. So this years report has three components to it and if you will, let me walk through these three because its important to understand what we did this year. So understanding that thise represents the 60th anniversary since the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. It us to understand that when we talk about all of these issues, we are standing on this foundation of an american magna carta that 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 constitution, and created a 14th amendment they added a section that said Congress Shall enforce this am by appropriate legislation. This was in the late 1860s. Now what happened along that journey i i to today the first Civil Rights Act that was passed of the civil rights■q ac■[■9 was twice vetoed by then president johnson. It became law because the congress overrode his veto. Then within 1875 that act, interestingly, looks a lot like the 1964 act. Weve got to teach a little bit this morning. And of that Civil Rights Act in 1883 was substantially struck down by the United StatesSupreme Court, and the United StatesSupreme Court meaning who sat on theourt changed as a result of the election so here was the Supreme Court less than 20 years after the civil war declaring a piece of legislation to enforce the constitution as unconstitutional. From that point forward, 1883, this very same court in another if you will judicial coup in 1896 declared separate but equal the law of the land and vanished black people to a second class status. I am connecting the as things go, things repeat themselves. And we need to understand that while those who are battling progress, they are following a historical map as ll and w undel roadmap. So, from the way until 1964, the civil rights leaders, the civil rights advocates of the early 20th century began to think and imagine and work on how they could pass a new civil rights law. And this decision gave rise to the creation in 1909 at the naacp, gave riseo creation in 1910 of the National Urbanthd thereafter. I want to bring us to 1964 because 1964 and the passage of the Civil Rights Act did not happen because there was a fit of enlightenment by the members of the United States congress. It didnt happen because of serendipitous osmosis. [laughter] it happened because there was a movement beginning when the courageous woman refused to give up her seat in Montgomery Alabama of direct action and that by an aggressive strategy in the courts that Thurgood Marshall and others, Charles Hamilton architected to try to knock down the polls, so it was litigation and activism. Our predecessors in the big six stood in 1963 with 250,000 with of that great march on washington. They had■e a demand an civilized act, and we want it now. So we come forward and we have been asked on a number of shows whats happened with the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and i look at the correspondence for women and africanamericans and other peoplef color who now grace all of these great media organizations that say you would not be here. [applause] not just the africanamericans, but the women and latinos and asians and be here but for the Civil Rights Act of 1964. So, cynics young sometimes what i call polite provocateurs will sometimes say nothing has changed, i say were you living in 1964 if we suggest that nothing has changed we are disrespecting the work of many. And it took Martin Luther king and dorothy hyde, and it took malcolm x and rosa parks Thurgood Marshall and Jack Greenberg and the uaw supporting the march on washington, and it took lyndon johnson, who knew how to break a 17 year filibuster. We dont know how many projects he promised. [laughter] we dont know howany deals he cut, but whatever he did, it worked, and the Civil Rights Act we are progenitors of that work. The second part of this state oy index and each and every year for the past 20 years, we have said lets put the facts when it comes to the numbers of social and Economic Conditions out there so we can understand clearly what the comparative is when it comes to the social and Economic Conditions of black americans and white americans so that we are not having a discussion with a billion opinions only. Yet we are also not having a discussion with the misinformation and of the the lyingthat goes on when it co progress or the lack ereof in this nation. And of the third part of the report is a report on President Biden and whether he has lived up to the promises he made in writing on paper as candidate biden. We wanted to look at it so becae those several of you and hear our elected and some of you are formerly elected. What counts i that politics is like romance. I make a promise, you buy into it, then i keep it. Its not about well i am changing my promises every day or backing off three and coming w new ones. So we had evaluated of president obama. We needed great rhetoric, this world of great rhetoric we need to always have a factual basis and with the urban league what they seek to do is provide a factual basis, whether it is the quality index for the Progress Report we put it out there for people to debate. You can discuss it, you can neee are just presenting the facts. So those are the three components of the state of the black america report. Can we talk a little bit about the Civil Rights Act of 64 . , so lets talk about what the Civil Rights Act of 64, which had seven provisions, seven sections which sought to open the doors to both employment and public accommodations, there were provisions on voting and a provision that applied to anyone that took federal money. So that act, lets look at some of changes, topline changes and a reference to these in american life. What has happened in Corporate America . Since 1964. So, since 64■p a zero women, we now have eight africanamerican at 50 plus women, and im not going to suggest to you that we can be satisfied or should be satisfied with this number. But its important to point out the change. Dynamic women and africanamericans who lead these companies are outstanding command behind them legions of vice presidency and senior vice ■k president s. Dont get me wrong. The fact that we highlight this does not suggest satisfaction. Its not what it suggests. Its that this act has made a bit of a difference in this area. Lets look at the community, of the congress and the United States. And i think this was enhanced by the 64 act andhe 65 Voting Rights act. Butook, when the Civil Rights Act pt, there were five blocks. Adam Clayton Powell of new york, bill dawson of los angeles, along■ Charles Diggs of detroit and john conyers of detroit. Those were the six, five or six africanamericans who were members of the congress at the time. Now theres a 60 africanamericans, 18 asian americans, 50 or latinos, five native americans, 150 women, applause. [applause] that deserves an applause. And i want to point this out because once again, has there been progress, far more progress here than the corporate side because this owes to the political engagement, this is to the involvement and then beyond these there are a number of members of congress who are not black, asian american, latino, not native american, africanamerican and latino voters are essential to their coalition meaning they could not win if they couldnt put a coalition that included these entities together. So lets give that a big round of applae. Im always excited when we look at that. So the Civil Rights Act has made a difference, but the current challenges that we face, i want to put this in this context may of 2020, covid was two months old. We were all watching and then the iphone video that the young woman in minneapolis was flashed across our screen and we saw george floyd, we saw a man died before our eyes [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 got calls from new zealand, hungary, the uniteddom. There was an awakening and a reckoning. I know my time is tight, but iveot to t a personal story because it did happen. 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 with and i attended a middle school where i was the first 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 graden i was in fifth grade, for bullying, calling me names. I guess they called micro aggression, it is a macro. 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■j, 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. Fast forward to today, fastforward to today, not on our watch. Not on our watch will we be silent while we watch those who make commitments all of a sudden gain the courage of the lion of the wizard of oz and walk away. Not on our watch will wee silent while people run for office, the wealthy hedge fund people, women who are president s of major universities. You might as well say what you really meant. You can say what you want, but dont that. This is the moment that we find ourselves in. We find rselves in a moment where over 1,000 proposals since 2022 suppress the vote to make it harder for people to vote, targeted at a black people into latinos and poor people and disabled americans and Older Americans and students with a cover story, which is a blatant misrepresentation and fly that with fraud. System is riddled we have to be clear that these arguments today are also going to involve stories of misrepresentation, misstatement of facts, invention of facts, distraction from the truth and definition of history. 1,000 bills across the nation to ba b come on maya angelou . Come on. Ralph ellison . Get out of here. To ban books as though these students are not going to go to barnes and noble to pick themoto 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 pac states have engaged in proposals to suppress the vote, im happy to tell you another have passed legislation to expand access to vote that introduced the voting and did things to make it easier so this is not simply that there is one side of the ledger and not on other side of the ledger. Every company that may be you retreating on the diversity equity and inclusion, there may be three or four say im going to double down, im going to stand and remain committed. We have to understand and not get caught in the glass half empty m fight a battle if we do not have a mindset that we are stronger because our case is right and that our friends and allies and ourselves are lying to make this occur. So in this index very quickly, we index at approximately 76 of where white americans are and i encourage you to look at the x. Ee an improvement in the last few years. That improvement is probably the largest twoyear improvement that weve seen in the past. However, at this pace, parity is 180 years away. Now, keep this in perspective. We are like a caboose on a