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A NATIONAL URBAN LEAGUE PUBLICATION UNDER SIEGE THE PLOT TO DESTROY DEMOCRACY 2022 www.stateofblackamerica.orgABOUT THE NATIONAL URBAN LEAGUE The National Urban League is a historic civil rights and urban advocacy organization. Driven to secure economic self-reliance, parity, power and justice for our nation’s marginalized populations, the National Urban League works toward economic empowerment and the elevation of the standard of living in historically underserved urban communities. Founded in 1910 and headquartered in New York City, the National Urban League has improved the lives of more than 2 million people each year nationwide through direct service programs run by 91 affiliates serving 300 communities in 36 states and the District of Columbia. The National Urban League also conducts public policy research and advocacy work from its Washington, D.C., bureau. The National Urban League is a BBB-accredited organization and has earned a 4-star rating from Charity Navigator, placing it in the top 10% of all U.S. charities for adhering to good governance, fiscal responsibility, and other best practices. PUBLISHER Marc H. Morial MANAGING DIRECTOR Tara Thomas EXECUTIVE EDITOR Teresa Candori RESEARCH PARTNER Brennan Center for Justice EDITORIAL DIRECTOR Michael Tomlin-Crutchfield SENIOR EDITOR Dr. Silas Lee CREATIVE DIRECTOR Rhonda Spears Bell DESIGN Untuck 03 About The State of Black America ® 04 Understanding The 2022 Equality Index™ 06 From The President’s Desk 08 Overview of The 2022 Equality Index ™ 10 The Legacy Eight 12 Brennan Center Report 20 Contributors 22 How To Reclaim Your Vote 23 National Urban League Affiliates CONTENTS 3 THE STATE OF BLACK AMERICA ® IS THE SIGNATURE REPORTING OF THE NATIONAL URBAN LEAGUE. When the National Urban League produced the first The State of Black America ® in 1976, the report captured the plight of a people who had been victims of systemic racism since arriving on the shores of this nation. More than a century after enslaved people were freed at the end of the civil war, the political leadership in this country had failed to help Black Americans secure equal rights entitled to all Americans. Politicians, including the President, had also failed to adequately capture and address the systemic barriers to equitable employment, health, housing, education, social justice, civic participation, and economic opportunity. Out of this, the State of Black America was born. In the 46th edition of the State of Black America ® , Under Siege: the Plot to Destroy Democracy, we are again raising the alarm about the outlook for Black and Brown people. Political forces have launched an all-out assault on voting rights that disproportionately affects the communities that we serve. Never has the fragility of our Democracy been more exposed than it is today. Fueled by “The Big Lie,” that there was mass voter fraud in the 2020 election, state legislatures are restricting voting access in districts with large populations of African Americans and other people of color. Some states are taking measures even further by actively targeting election oversight roles held by people of color. State legislatures are introducing and passing legislation that enacts strict voter ID laws and threatens to end all forms of early voting to disenfranchise voters. Partisan lawmakers are redrawing Congressional maps districts to reduce the number of Congressional seats held by people of color. The Brennan Center for Justice paints a clear picture of where bills have been introduced and laws have been passed to give partisan lawmakers the power to control the outcome of our elections. The visuals also track states that have introduced new Congressional maps that disproportionately impact Black and Brown communities. This year’s report includes essays from members of Congress, civil rights champions, community activists, and esteemed academics. The words from our contributing authors provide insight into how to restore honor to our Democratic process, describe the power the judiciary and grassroots organizers have to protect voting rights, and reflect on the year that followed the deadly insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021. It is our ardent responsibility to ensure that America remains a Democratic nation for the benefit of all instead of a nation governed by a few. To access the 2022 State of Black America suite of offerings— including author essays, data, expert analysis, and a ready- for-download version of this executive summary—head to the State of Black America website. ABOUT THE STATE OF BLACK AMERICA® STATEOFBLACKAMERICA.ORG Scan to read the full report!WHY DOES THE NATIONAL URBAN LEAGUE PUBLISH AN EQUALITY INDEX? Economic empowerment is the central theme of the National Urban League’s mission. The Equality Index gives us a way to document progress toward this mission for Black Americans relative to whites. WHAT IS THE EQUALITY INDEX TRYING TO DO? The Equality Index uses pie charts to show how well Black Americans are doing in comparison to whites when it comes to their economic status, their health, their education, social justice, and civic engagement. The Equality Index measures the share of that pie which Black Americans get. Whites are used as the benchmark because the history of race in America has created advantages for whites that continue to persist in many of the outcomes being measured. THE 2022 EQUALITY INDEX OF BLACK AMERICA IS 73.9%. WHAT DOES THAT MEAN? That means that rather than having a whole pie (100%), which would mean full equality with whites in 2022, African Americans are missing about 26% of the pie. HOW IS THE EQUALITY INDEX CALCULATED? The categories that make up the Equality Index are: economics, health, education, social justice and civic engagement. In each category, we use nationally representative statistics to calculate a sub-index that captures how well Black Americans are doing relative to whites. Each category is weighted based on the importance that we give to each. The weighted average of all five categories is then calculated to get the total Equality Index. IS IT POSSIBLE TO SEE HOW WELL BLACK AMERICANS ARE DOING IN EACH OF THE CATEGORIES? Yes. We show this in the tables included with the Equality Index. We estimate an index for each category that can be interpreted in the same way as the total Equality Index. So, an index of 62.1% for the economics category for 2022 means that Black Americans are missing over a third of the economics mini-pie. Figure 1 summarizes the total 2022 Equality Index and the sub-index in each category. IS IT POSSIBLE TO SEE HOW WELL BLACK AMERICANS ARE DOING OVER TIME? Yes. The National Urban League has published the Equality Index of Black America and all the variables used to calculate it since 2005. IT DOESN’T LOOK LIKE THERE’S BEEN MUCH IMPROVEMENT IN THE EQUALITY INDEX. WHAT’S THE POINT? The Equality Index is made up of a lot of different parts. Improvements in one area are sometimes offset by losses in another area, leaving the overall index unchanged. Change often happens slowly. The Equality Index offers solid evidence of just how slowly it happens, making the index an indispensable tool for shaping the policies needed in the ongoing fight against inequality. NOT ALL BLACK AMERICANS ARE DOING POORLY AND NOT ALL WHITES ARE DOING WELL . WHY DOESN’T THE EQUALITY INDEX CAPTURE CLASS DIFFERENCES? The Equality Index was created to capture racial inequality. Most of the data points are reported as averages for Black Americans and whites. An average is the easiest way to summarize a large amount of information, but can mask class differences within each group. While the Equality Index does not detail class differences, it does highlight regional differences in racial inequality through our rankings of metro area unemployment and income inequality (not included this year but available for prior years). UNDERSTANDING THE 2022 EQUALITY INDEX ™ 4 2022 STATE OF BLACK AMERICA ® UNDER SIEGE: THE PLOT TO DESTROY DEMOCRACY5 NATIONAL URBAN LEAGUE Education 74.5% 73.9% Economics Health Education Social Justice Civic Engagement 30% 25% 25% 10% 10% EQUALITY INDEX BREAKDOWN Key / Weighted Index Categories Figure 1. Black–White Equality Index Broken Down by Category 73.9% * The Social Justice indicator had older data in 2020 and therefore all the weight in the “Equality Before the Law” subcategory was placed on one indicator: Mean Incarceration Rate. In the 2022 version, we expanded and updated the list of indicators. In this version we include statistics around encounters with law enforcement and the use of force. With the inclusion of the additional indicators and re-weighting the social justice indicator has gone up but the comparison is not apples to apples. The conclusion is that the Social Justice pillar is still by far the weakest pillar for Black Americans and shows extreme disparities. Civic Engagement 98.9% Economics 62.1% Health 84.0% Social Justice 57.85% THE 2022 BLACK–WHITE INDEX FROM THE PRESIDENT'S DESK MARC H. MORIAL BY MARC H. MORIAL President & CEO, National Urban League 6 2022 STATE OF BLACK AMERICA ® UNDER SIEGE: THE PLOT TO DESTROY DEMOCRACY Bragging to donors that her organization secretly drafted voter suppression bills for state legislatures, using operatives to disguise the source and create a “grassroots vibe,” Heritage Action for America Executive Director Jessica Anderson gushed, “Honestly, nobody even noticed.” The burden of these laws—strict photo ID requirements, the elimination or restriction of Sunday voting, voting by mail and early voting, and the closing of polling locations— overwhelmingly falls on Black voters. State legislators drew new Congressional districts in North Carolina, where people of color made up 90% of the population growth in the last decade. They also eliminated a majority-nonwhite district that had elected a Black member of Congress since 1990 by siphoning 13 percent of the Black population into neighboring districts. The Brennan Center for Justice called the legislators “breathtaking in their aggressiveness.” For generations, politicians have used these tactics—voter suppression, gerrymandering, intimidation, and misinformation—to exclude voters of color. When the U.S. Constitution was adopted in 1787, only land-owning white men were allowed to vote. It wasn’t until the 15th Amendment was ratified in 1870 that Black Americans were guaranteed the right to vote, although the rise of Jim Crow restrictions like poll taxes and literacy tests effectively disenfranchised Southern Blacks for most of the next century. The 19th Amendment in 1920 extended voting rights to women—practically only to white women, until the Voting Rights Act of 1965 outlawed most Jim Crow restrictions. And since the passage of the Voting Rights Act in 1965, the United States has seen a steady rise in disenfranchisement practices giving one party an edge over the other. But never before has the nation seen such an insidious and coordinated campaign to obliterate the very principle of “one person, one vote” from the political process.7 NATIONAL URBAN LEAGUE “ It is, in every sense of the term, a plot to destroy democracy. The current anti-democratic wave began to rise after the 2008 election when Black voting rates matched white voting rates for the first time and helped propel Barack Obama to the White House. It crested in 2013 when the Supreme Court’s Shelby County v. Holder decision gutted the Voting Rights Act’s preclearance provision. And it broke against “The Big Lie,” the relentless campaign to sow doubt about the 2020 presidential campaign and illegitimately declare Donald Trump the winner. Using data and analysis from our research partner, Brennan Center for Justice, this year’s edition of The State of Black America clearly outlines how unscrupulous state and federal lawmakers, devious political operatives, and violent extremists are working in concert to disenfranchise, delude, manipulate, and intimidate American voters and establish a one-party rule. AND SINCE THE PASSAGE OF THE VOTING RIGHTS ACT IN 1965, THE UNITED STATES HAS SEEN A STEADY RISE IN DISENFRANCHISEMENT PRACTICES GIVING ONE PARTY AN EDGE OVER THE OTHER. BUT NEVER BEFORE HAS THE NATION SEEN SUCH AN INSIDIOUS AND COORDINATED CAMPAIGN TO OBLITERATE THE VERY PRINCIPLE OF ‘ONE PERSON, ONE VOTE’ FROM THE POLITICAL PROCESS.8 2022 STATE OF BLACK AMERICA ® UNDER SIEGE: THE PLOT TO DESTROY DEMOCRACY OVERVIEW OF THE 2022 EQUALITY INDEX ™ AN INTRODUCTION We entered 2022 with bated breath. Would this be the year that the pandemic will end and our lives return to normal? For Black America, a return to normal is an America where measures of well-being too often find Black Americans at or near the bottom. A return to normal means the inequality in education, food and housing security, healthcare, occupation distributions, and wealth that was spotlighted during the pandemic will fade once again into the background. However, 2022 is a mid-term election year. Politicians whose careers rely on the Black vote will campaign on promises of policies to support voting rights and reduce inequality in education, health, and wealth. For nearly 20 years, the National Urban League Equality Index ™ has tracked the progress of public policies and social justice movements in closing the gaps in economic opportunity, education, health, social justice, and civic engagement. Because of the lag in data collection and analysis, the 2022 Equality Index does not capture the full effect of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic or the resulting economic recession. Officially, the recession only lasted two months, from February to April 2020. However, the 2022 Equality Index does capture changes in the Black–white disparities during the pandemic for homeownership, unemployment rates, and school enrollment. For these metrics, the 2022 Equality Index illustrates how precarious social and economic gains are for Black Americans. It is also evidence of how vulnerable Black Americans are to economic and public health crises. The Equality Index is an aggregate analysis of centuries of structural racism that can be a starting point for crafting policy to dismantle anti-Black racism in America. 73.9%73.7% The 2022 Equality Index of Black America stands at 73.9%, an improvement of 0.2 percentage points from the revised 2020 index of 73.7%. 20202022 BY RHONDA VONSHAY SHARPE, Ph.D. President & Founder of the Women’s Institute for Science, Equity and RaceThe 2022 Equality Index of Black America stands at 73.9%, an improvement of 0.2 percentage points from the revised 2020 index of 73.7%. Revisions to the previous year’s index are done for greater comparability across years and reflect data points that have been corrected, removed from the current year’s index, or re-weighted so that less emphasis is placed on older data. The stagnation in the Equality Index between 2020 and 2022 reflects gains in the economic area (59.2% to 62.8%) that are nearly offset by declines in education (77.3% to 74.5%) and civic engagement (100% to 98.9%). There were modest improvements in the social justice index (from 57.46% to 57.85%). In general, these improvements reflect data that predates the coronavirus pandemic, recession, and social justice uprisings that hit the country during the first half of 2020. Further, social justice remains the area where we observe the least equality between Blacks and Whites and civic engagement the area with the highest equality. Health equality was essentially unchanged (from 83.8% to 84%). Because of the lag between data collection and public access, the gains in the Black-White economics index from 2020 to 2022 continue to reflect the economic progress of Black Americans during the longest economic expansion on record, 128 months— June 2009 to February 2020. The improvement in the Black– White economics index was driven mainly by greater equality in Black–White median household incomes—63% in 2022, up from 58% in 2020, and greater equality in the median earnings of Black women—82%, up from 80% in 2020. However, Black men’s median weekly earnings decreased from 73% to 72% of White men. The homeownership rate gap also widened, as the Black rate of ownership fell from 61% of the White rate in 2020 to 59% in 2022. There was a narrowing of the poverty rate gap, with the rate of Blacks not in poverty increasing from 39% of the White rate in 2020 to 49% in 2022. Other improvements include less disparity in median home values (from 70% in 2020 to 72% in 2022) and median wealth (from 7% in 2020 to 13% in 2022). The pandemic-induced recession increased unemployment rates across all ethnic and racial groups. As a result, the unemployment rate gap widened, with the rate of African Americans employed falling from 54% of the White rate in 2020 to 51% in 2022, and the rate of Black men employed falling from 50% to 44%. The increase in the Black–White health index changed very little from 2020 to 2022. But several health categories saw improvements. In the area of mental health, Black students are less likely to consider suicide, as indicated by the index values greater than 100%. For African-American children, there was a narrowing in breastfeeding rates (79% of the White rate in 2020 to 82% in 2022). More Black children had a usual place of health care (60%, up from 57% in 2020), but more of them were uninsured (6%, up from 4.6% in 2020) Meanwhile, the uninsured rate for white children fell from 4.2% in 2020 to 3.8 in 2022, widening the disparity gap by 28 percentage points. Of concern is the increase in the total share of African Americans without health insurance, nearly 15% (up from 9.7% in 2020), widening the Black–White disparity gap by five percentage points. The death rate of African-American men from prostate cancer nearly tripled, widening the racial equity gap by six percentage points. While the suicide death rate for African-American men decreased to 5.5 per 100,000 (from 11.4 per 1000,000 in 2020), the racial equity gap increased. Black girls were twice as likely as White girls to be obese (an index value of 51%). The share of African Americans aged 20 or older diagnosed with diabetes decreased from 32.6% to 12.7%, narrowing the racial equity gap by 26 percentage points. Although there is racial equity in the likelihood of contracting COVID-19 (index value of 100%), African Americans are 2.5 times more likely to be hospitalized and 1.7 times more likely to die than Whites. The education index fell by 2.6 percentage points from 2020 to 2022, driven in part by a drop in the share of 20- and 21-year- olds enrolled in school for a 14-point increase in the racial equity gap. The racial equality gap closed for primary school enrollment of African-American children aged 3–6 and 16–17, and young adults aged 18–19. The racial equity gap in degrees conferred in computer and information science was closed, bringing the index value to 103% (from 99% in 2020). Eighty- four percent of Black 8th graders have access to the equivalent of high school algebra (index value 98%). Although the Black–White social justice index changed very little between 2020 and 2022, there were some notable gains and losses. The racial equity gap for firearm related death rates (for all ages) increased by two percentage points. Of great concern is the increased firearm related death rate for boys 1–14, 2.8 per 100,000 (up from 1.5 per 100,000 in 2020), widening the racial equity gap by 33 percentage points. In contrast, firearm related death rates for Black men 45–64 decreased, from 27.5 per 100,000 in 2020 to 24 per 100,000 in 2020, bringing the index value to 100%—equality. African Americans were three times as likely as Whites to be incarcerated after an arrest, widening the racial equity gap by three percentage points. Although the rate for violent crime victimization fell to 17.5 per 1,000 (from 20.4 per 1,000 in 2020), the racial equity gap widened by 28 percentage points. The decrease in the Black–White civic engagement index reveals less equality in the percentage of people volunteering—an index value of 54%, down from 73% in 2020. African Americans have a relative advantage over Whites in federal executive branch employment—a 2022 index value of 163%, up from 150% in 2020. African Americans remain more likely than Whites to be union members and to be represented by unions. The Union membership index value increased from 109% in 2020 to 112% and being represented by a union rose from 110% in 2020 to 111% in 2022. The 2022 Equality Index captures areas of our society where Black Americans are thriving at the top of this decade, and areas where we are vulnerable to falling behind in our pursuit of an equitable experience in America. We hope that this can serve as a tool for elected representatives and civil rights leaders to advocate for policies that address system racism and gaps in our political, economic, social justice, education, and healthcare systems. NATIONAL URBAN LEAGUE 9 THE BLACK-WHITE INDEXNext >