[applause] thank you very much. Good 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. S and a warm thanks forjohnson. 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 and inclusion. And i will get to that a little later. A second, i want to welcome, ure affiliate leaders from across the country. Give a wave and a hand. [applause]c those in the audience and those who are watching, this is the heart and soul of our■n work. Men and women, highly talented, highly committed on the ground in the areas across the nationrn people year with direct services. Give it up for the affiliate leaders. [applause] and also, they are supported by a number of volunteer groups, affiliate board members. Each affiliate had its ownbers e 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 a 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. [applause] thank you all very, very much. And then guess what. Its the 25th anniversary of the National Urban league Young Professionals. [applause] 25 years young. Youve got to 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 will continue to grow and then with us here in the building and maybe some in the room, we had a number oud our business executie stage program. Any students here are they otherwise engaged we have one or two students here. [applause] let me make sure i get the schools mainly from 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 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 what where did this notion of the 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 you ar from the president of the United States on his position and execution for the nation. 1976 in t late great legend held this position and a person on t and watched prison forward deliver the early state of the union address, he listened intently and carefully to president ford. President for the 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 ignor 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 that was 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 greateahe pulled together a grof scholars, africanamerican scholars and others to print what was a report with both analysis, recommendations on the future of the nation and that was the beginning of the state of black america. And so tbe able to now for almo0 years late a■ r for me to be abo present to you our thinking on what is the state of black p america. It is not on our watch. Not on our watch when we allow the progress and the games and the very esscehw that has been done by many generations of americans, many generations of civil rights leaders and black americans to be eroded by a 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■m r workin. The state of black america is not just a comment on the state of black america. It is a comment on e the nation, the state of the union the challenges that we face are not always challenges that we only face. They are faced in other communities. Many times the challenges are disproportionate to oure cant o hijack our voice when we speak about the state of black america we are speaking about the state 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 this represents the 60th anniversary since the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Its important for 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 long fight and a long struggle that went all the way back to the vi 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 amendment by appropriate legislation. This was in the late 1860s. Now what happened along that journey is instructive to today the first Civil Rights Act that was passed of the civil rights ac was twice vetoed by then president johnson. It became law because the his v. 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 right act in 1883 was substantially struck down by the United StatesSupreme Court, and the United StatesSupreme Court meaning who sat on the cou 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 bul the law of the land and■ black people to a second class status. I am connecting the because to understand thats repeat while those who are battling progress, they are following a historical map as well a undersl roadmap. So, from 1896 all the way until 1964, the civil rights leaders, the civil rights advocates of the early 20th century began t think and imagine and work on how they could pass a new civil rights law. And this decision gave rise to e naacp, gave risen in 1910 of the National Urban organizations that evolved thereafter. I want to bring us to 1964the ct 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 give up her seat in Montgomery Alabama of direct action and that movement■x w supported 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 a demand we wt a civilized act, and we want it now. Soe 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 people of color who now grace all of these great media that say you would not be here. [applause] not just the afr but the women and latinos and asians and would not be here but for the Civil Rights Act of 1964. So, while cynics young sometimes what i call pol 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■o ÷ Thurgood Marshall and Jack Greenberg and the uaw supporting the march on washington, and it took lyndon johnson, who knew howp2 to break a 17 year filibuster. We dont know how many projects he promised. [laughter] we dont know how many he cut, but whatever he did, it worked, and the civil rights ac. We are progenitors of that work. The second part of this state iy 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 t 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 wie misinformation and of the the lyingthat goes on when it co progress or the lack thereof 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 on paper e biden. We wanted to look at it so that6 people could understand because those several of you and hear our elected and some of you are formerly elected. What countss that politics is like romance. I make a promise, you buy into it, then i its not about well i am changing my promises every day or backing off three and coming up with two new ones. So we had evaluated of president obama. We needed t grow a great rhetoric, this world of great rhetoric we need to always have a facal 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 challenge it if need be, but we are just presenting the facts. So 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 t employmd 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 the changes, topline changes and a reference to these in american life. What has happened in corporate since 1964. So, since 64ro women, we now hat africanamerican at 50 plus women, and im that we can be satisfied or should be satisfied with this number. But its important to point out the change. These dynamic women and africanamericans who lead these companies are competent and outg command behind them legions of vice presidency and Senior Vice President s 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 thehe congress and the United States. And i think this was enhanced by the 64 act and the 65 Voting Rights act. But look, when the Civil Rights Act past, there were five blocks. Adam Clayton Powell of new york, bill dawson of los angeles, along with philadelphia, and 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] thatlause. And i want to point this out because once again, has there been progress, far more progress here than the corporate side ca political engagement, this is to the involvement and then beyond these there are a large number of members of congress who are not black, asian american, latino, not native american, who africanamerican and latino voters are essential to their coalition meaning they could not win if they couldnt put a coition that included these entities together. So lets give that a big round of applause. 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 waswo all watchin the video that the young woman in minneapolis was flashed across we saw george floyd, we saw a man died before our eyes [inaudible] which one is working . This one, neither. Let me talk loud. So, we saw that on the streets spontaneously spontaneously there were protests around the we got calls from new zealand, hungary, the united ngdom. There was an awakening and a reckoning. I know my time is tight, but ive got to tell you 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 to middle scd 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 wa in fifth grade, for bullying, calling me names. I guess they called micro aggression, it is a macroaggres. But he said in the letter that he was compelled to 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. 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 of the lion of the wizard of oz and walk away. Not on our watch will we silent while people run for office, the wealthy hedge fund,s of major universities. You might as well 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 ourselvedcin moment where over 1,0ro since 2022 suppress the vote to me 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 somehow the system is riddled with fraud. We have to be clear that these arguments today are also going to involve cover stories of misrepresentation, misstatement distraction from the truth and definition of history. 1,000 bills across the nation to ban books. Come on maya angelou . Come on. Ralph ellis . Get out of here. 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 to go 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. Bu 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 more who doublm going to stand and remain committed. 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 td 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 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 the past. However, at this pace, parity is 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■i up, yes it has. Give a hand. [applause] but the rate for white americans has improved and that is not a bad thing but we remain behind. Di for the college rate and for many areas we made progress, but weve not made■n relative progress to the overall improvements in the country, and that is the paradox of this index. I wanted to show yout you can st 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 this as a tool for conversations and policymaking and leadership. We want students, scholars, journalists, businesspeople, labor leaders, politicians to understand these numbers and then finally, joe biden. So, joe biden when as a Civil Rights Community you will remember when we■o got on the phone in 2020 to speak to him and its our practice to return to spe