We probably get 72 per delegate votes that they next president of the United States. [applause] [applause] today the National Urban leg released their annual state of black america report. Says africanamericans are moving backwards on issues of equality and calls for 1 trillion in spending over five years on education, Small Business and Youth Employment programs. The National Urban league resident marc morial discuss the reported museum in washington. This is 50 minutes. [inaudible conversations] good morning. Ladies and gentlemen i want to welcome you the 2015th state of black america launch event. Education jobs and justice. Im amber pain they been urging editor of nbc universals inclusive site for politics culture social issues. We tell stories by four and about the black community. And hello to everybody watching this historic right cast on line. We want to invite you to join the conversation on social media by using the hashtag locked out and we are coming to you live from the studio at the museum in washington d. C. And here to welcome us is the former president of Colgate University awardwinning author and political scientist the president and ceo of the museum, mr. Jeffries herbst. [applause] good morning. Welcome to the studio and welcome to the museum. The new cm explains promotes and defends the five freedoms of the First Amendment and the right of free expression. We do so through a building which welcomes 800,000 people each year to 15 galleries paris set of programs that contain stakeholders to discuss important issues around our foundational freedoms and an Educational Program which reaches close to 3 million schoolchildren through digital outreach. In our building you will see the long history of struggles for freedom in the United States and how the struggles have depended on the rights of assembly, speech, press, expression, religion and petition. Critical to our building has been the long struggle in the United States for civil rights. We tell the story of what has been accomplished and we will also tell the story of what still needs to be done. In that regard it has been our pleasure to partner with the National Urban league and marc morial on this important launch of the 40th edition of the state of latin america. This is i spend an important but this year it provides the opportunity to see what has been done and what still must be done. Certainly we are part of that effort and we look forward to using our commitment and our ability to explain our foundational freedom to be part of the struggle of inclusivity and equality in the United States. I am delighted to be part of this program today. I am honored that the National Urban leaguer has chosen the newseum to launch the state of black america and im pleased to welcome me today and hope to see you often. Thank you and again welcome to the newseum. [applause] thank you so much mr. Herbst it. So this important event today would not be possible without the support of the National Urban leg longtime partner at t. Representing at t here today is jim cicconi the Senior ExecutiveVice President for external and legislative affairs. Mr. Cicconi is also the chair of the education focused at t foundation. Lets welcome mr. Cicconi. [applause] thank you amber. Good morning everybody. Its an honor for at t and for me personally to be here with you today. Thank you to the National Urban leg for all you have done to out civil rights equality and opportunity were so many decades. Your success is a shining light to us all. Americas better more just society because of what you have done. You know the urban league and at t work on a lot of issues together and work with companies and organizations but rarely is there a situation which are two organizations goals are as closely aligned as they are today. There is one constant in the state of the black america report. The importance of spreading opportunity and empowerment. Thats for at t wants to help. At ts businesses to spread access to one of the most important tools for empowerment highspeed internet service. Broadband is one of americas great equalizers. Its a powerful tool to help people reach their potential. At at t we see the promise of technology to help address many of the disparities detailed in this years state of black america report. It will take more than technology to address these issues. We must lead by example and supporting justice. Our view social justice is far too important to be only matter of individuals. It must be an endeavor for corporations. Looking at results of a National Urban leg state of black america report all of us are seeing steep challenges. There is no magic wallet that by working together with the urban leg we hope to continue to make progress to address these Critical Issues and that is just so we intend to do. Thank you very much. [applause] thank you mr. Cicconi and thank you to at t for a year due to support the work of the national. And the cbl k. Is proud to join at t Interactive One and the newseum 2 the first of its kind live right cast to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the state of black america. Over the last four decades the state of black america has become a national touchstone for the social, economic status of the nations africanamerican and minority communities. Serving as a barometer for the progress of people of color relative to white america. Here to share the findings of the report in and to discuss the implications for the nation is the president and ceo of the National Urban leg, mr. Marc morial. Lets welcome him to the stage. [applause] thank you. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen good morning to you that want to thank you for being here today and thank you to at t as well as to the newseum for hosting this today. Of course i am marc morial residency of the National Urban leaguer and urban leaguer movement. As we have discussed this year is the 40th anniversary of the state of black america. It was introduced by the legendary Vernon Jordan who is the executive director of the National Urban leaguer from 1971 to 1981. Vernon jordan spent his entire childhood living under dehumanizing segregation of jim crow era georgia. Unable to imagine that one day, yes one day a black man with the elected president of the United States. In his early years and as a young lawyer he was immersed in the struggle for civil rights. One of his first cases was a successful challenge to the university of georgias discriminatory admissions policy. The years of Vernon Jordans tenure at the National Urban league in the 1970s for a period when the United States was coping with the repercussions of the sweeping changes of the silver rights era of the 1960s. As vernon put it, we were dealing with the rubble of the walls we tore down in the 1960s and despite the turbulence of the era, the poverty, the crime, the racial violence, president gerald ford made not one mention of the plight of africanamericans in his 1976 state of the union address. Vernon jordan was appalled and the state state of black america was born. Mr. Jordan is regretfully unable to join us in person today but he graciously sat down with us and shared his memories of the past and insights into the present. Take a look. When i think back on my tenyear term of the urban league, the state of black america is one of the things that i am the most proud of. The 1970s was the aftermath of what happened in the 1960s when we defined the rights of black people. The 1970s were about making real the rights that had been defined. Let me give you an example. In the 1960s we conferred and defined their right to check into a motel or a hotel. The 1970s were about providing the wherewithal to check out. The right to check in is meaningless if you dont have what it takes to check out, and so that meant a good education so you can get a good job and so the implementation of the definition and the conferring of rights in the 1960s was a primary goal of the 1970s. 1975 was an interesting year. President gerald ford was running the country. He was a good man. He was a friend of mine, but in the area that i most cared about he was not very aggressive and we werent getting much leadership on the issue that they urban leg was interested in them that is the urban leaguer and that is the equal opportunity of black americans. I was relatively new having succeeded and we had lost martin in the late whitney young. The naacp was not doing so well. I was sort of the youngest guy on the scene and it was important to fill this gap and i thought that was my job and i thought institutionally it was what the urban league ought to be doing. One of the programs that we initiated was the state of black america. Its interesting that in the state of the union but dress by president ford, he didnt say anything about equal opportunity or the plight of black people. We came out the state same month with the state of black america and we, it was sufficiently potent. It was sufficiently well researched that the New York Times wrote an editorial about it and essentially said that we had done the nation and the Political Parties a service by issuing the state of black america which is now 40 years old. Local urban leagues started issuing the state of black america in their local cities, the state of black people in xyz cities and that got duplicated. Where im proud of is my successes successors who in my judgment had the good judgment to continue with it, because it was not only in the interest of the National Urban league and its programs, it was in my judgment in the interest of the nation because politicians, ministers, professors, academics, they used this data to make their points in their lectures and their speeches. It was good data. I remember a lecture night in 2008 wednesday announced that obama was going to be the next president of the United States and i found myself sitting there watching the television with tears just dreaming down my eyes it dawned on me that my tears were not really my tears if they were the tears of my grandparents and my parents. They were the tears of all those black people whod toted that cotton and lifted that theyll. The notion that obama was going to be president or any black president was stunning. I feel good and gratified about the continuance of a program that i was privileged to start. Its in its 40th year and that tells you something about the substance of the urban leaguer, about the consistency of its leadership. So im very pleased about it. [applause] thank you Vernon Jordan. And now ladies and gentlemen we werent able to include everything burning jordan said in that interview. When he was talking about president obamas presidency, he mentioned his steadfast earliest political memory. It was listening to Eugene Thomas on the radio in 1943. When he was just eight years old he remembers calvert saying i have two platforms. Imagine the distance his life has been added here is what the New York Times had a to say in that editorial that vernon mentioned. In all aspects of life that could be measured statistically, the gains that were made in the 1960s have been decimated. And in tangible terms those relating to the demands demands for quality occurs on the nations conscience by its leaders all gears have been thrown into reverse. All ears have been thrown into reverse. Black america is moving backwards. The similarities of the United States of 1976 and the United States in 2016 are profoundly striking. We are now as we were then a nation struggling to overcome them worst economic downturn since the great depression. All gears have been thrown into reverse. We are now as we were then, facing growing pressure. 2 human needs programs for the poor to demonize and characterize as lazy slackers. All of ears have been thrown into reverse. We are now as we were then, responding to hostility and violence triggered by challenges to the status quo whether responding to busing programs to integrate Public Schools are resistant to common place and Police Brutality today. All gears have been thrown into reverse. Have Racial Justice and Race Relations improved over the last eight years . As our president wraps up his final months as the nations first africanamerican commanderinchief, we begin to assess the Progress Black americans made under his administration. How well has the nation recovered from the worst economic crisis that is seen in generations . How much closer are we to the very important goal of universal Health Care Coverage . Is the Affordable Care active obamacare gotten us . Has president obama said in his recent commencement address at Howard University my election did not create a postracial society. Mr. President you are right, the 2016 National LeagueEquality Index tells an all too familiar story of persistent Racial Disparity in american life. Your presidency has however made a difference, a profound difference and we are proud of it yet we cannot eliminate americas longstanding challenges around racial inequity but your presidency has given a new energy. In 1787, africanamericans were designated to be threefifths of a person. Under a Constitutional Convention compromise between northern and southern states, americas Founding Fathers agreed to count and slaved americans as threefifths of a person. Thats 60 . Looking for a way to measure how far black americans have risen from being considered just 60 of their white counterparts, back in 2004 we introduced as a new element of the state of black america the Equality Index so how far have we come . In 2016 that number is 72. 2 . And Equality Index of 100 would indicate that conditions for white and black americans are equal. We calculate the Equality Index based on data in five key areas, economics, health, education, social justice and civic engage meant. Now the Overall Index might not change much from yeartoyear. Last years index was just two tenths of a percentage point lower at 72 . But there can be significant ships within each of those key areas and we take a deep a closer look at the conditions within select groups of cities. Economically for example the most equal match your area with regard to unemployment is Providence Rhode island with an index of 65 . That means the gap between the wide in the black unemployment rates was the smallest in the cities we measured. It does not necessarily mean that conditions there are for the best for africanamericans. Its also which has the same black unemployment. As providence ranked dirty night on our list because the white unemployment. There is only 4. 2 making the gap between the black and white race much larger. Now unemployment and joblessness is just one of the many injustices they keep too many of our cities locked out. I realize that standing here and reciting numbers is not the best way to illustrate the refound impact of economic and social justice in this nation. But ladies and gentlemen behind the statistics are real people, men, women, families, children and they are affected in dramatic ways. Now we right the wrongs of history. Now we must right the wrongs in our education system. Now we must right the wrongs in our economy. Now we must right the wrongs of mass incarceration and unequal justice. [applause] at the glory wont be hours without a plan. Its not the man, its the plan its not the woman, its the plan. Its not their rap, we need a roadmap. And my predecessor john jacob, 25 years ago at the 15th state of black america said america cant compete if it continues to warehouse a significant proportion of our workforce in poverty and ignorance. And she cannot compete without investing in Human Capital and human resources. His idea was simple and profound it was to replicate the most successful Antipoverty Initiative in modern american history, the european Marshall Plan. His urban Marshall Plan and to reduce the 1990s was meant to be the completion of what he called our unfinished revolution for democracy and human rights. We dont finish of revolution by thinking about it very at the urban league is not a think tank. And we dont finish a revolution i just talked in about it. He urban league is not a talk tank. The urban league is a dude tank and what we need to do is say our cities big and small north and south east and west from coast to coast, we must save our cities. [applause] and we must develop our economic infrastructure and pull people out of poverty from welfare worlds to payrolls and we can commit the nation support to her struggling urban Communities J