Print 
PDFFrom United for a Fair Economy:
The last 30 years of public policy have hindered progress toward Dr. King’s dream of racial equality. Thirty years from now, people of color will collectively represent the majority of the U.S. population. If we continue along the same governing path, the racial economic divide will remain in 2042 and, in many regards, will be considerably worse.
…
United for a Fair Economy’s ninth annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Day report, State of the Dream 2012: The Emerging Majority, assesses the state of the racial economic divide since the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980, and uses the trends of the last thirty years to project thirty years forward to 2042.
Download the report: The State of the Dream 2012: The Emerging Majority
| If the current trends continue:
Income: Black and Latino median incomes will be 61 cents 45 cents, respectively, for every dollar of median White income in 2042. Blacks will have gained only 4 cents while Latinos will have lost 15 cents of median income relative to Whites from 2010 to 2042. Poverty: In 2010, poverty rates among Blacks (25.7%) and Latinos (25.4%) were more than two and a half times the White poverty rate. By 2042, the Black and Latino poverty rates will remain 1.9 times and 2.6 times that of the White poverty rate. Jobs: The current unemployment rates stand at 7.5 percent for Whites, 15.8 percent for Blacks and 11 percent for Latinos. In 2042, Black and Latino unemployment will be 1.8 times and 1.5 times higher than White unemployment, respectively. Wealth: By 2042, Blacks and Latinos will both have lost ground in average wealth, holding only 19 cents and 25 cents for each dollar of White wealth. The average net worth of Black and Latino families in 2007 was 20 cents and 27 cents, respectively, for every dollar of White net worth. Higher Education: Black adults were 60 percent as likely to have a college degree as White adults in 2010, while Latino adults were only 42 percent as likely as Whites to have a college degree. By 2042, Black will be 76 percent as likely as Whites to have earned a college degree; Latinos will have become even less likely (37 percent) than Whites to have a college degree. Incarceration: In 2010, Blacks were a staggering 6.1 times more likely to be incarcerated than Whites. Latinos were 2.5 times more likely than Whites to be incarcerated, and this figure does not include the disproportionately Latino population being held in immigration detention centers. In 2042, Blacks will still be six times and Latinos two times as likely as Whites to be incarcerated. |
See also:
- Unsung Heroes — Women of the Civil Rights Movement
- Honoring the Women who Started the Civil Rights Movement
The truth is, long before a somewhat reluctant Martin Luther King was enlisted to lead the Montgomery Improvement Association which called for a boycott of the Montgomery, Alabama, bus system, Jo Ann Robinson, the head of the Women’s Political Council (WPC) and its other members had been advocating for a boycott protesting the segregation of buses. Robinson, a professor at the historically black Alabama State College in Montgomery, became an activist after being verbally attacked by a white bus driver in 1949. After becoming president of the WPC, the organization focused on the abuses and degradation endured by black bus riders on a daily basis. Faced with the opportunity to organize around Rosa Parks’ arrest, the WPC immediately swung into action, calling for a bus boycott. And for the year that the boycott continued, the Women’s Political Council did the difficult and sometimes dangerous work of organizing alternate means of transportation for Montgomery’s black workers.
(15)