Urban League Releases Annual ‘State of Black America’ Report

The National Urban League is a historic civil rights and urban advocacy organization that was founded in 1910 in New York City. It's been in continuous operation for the past 110 years and has affiliate offices around the nation, which includes 6 affiliate locations in New York State, with the Buffalo Urban League being one of the larger organizations. The National Urban League has issued this report since 1976.

This year the Urban League released the 46th edition of this report and it delves into many topics that impact Black Americans specifically and all Americans generally.

One of the primary facets of this year's report is the 2022 Equality Index and how it's used to help understand the conditions that many Americans live in today and offers a way to understand the progress towards equality. The Equity Index looks at various indices, including economics, health, education, social justice, and civic engagement to help calculate how well some Americans are doing when compared to others.

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
-Marc Morial, President & CEO of the National Urban League

The report which has several contributing authors, including the US Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, who runs the gambit of different walks of life in America, has assisted in creating this well-researched report.

Across the United States, at least 19 states passed laws last year that will make it harder for Americans to vote in the upcoming election. These laws are not aimed at everyone, rather they target all the ways that certain voters—especially people of color access the ballot box. This represents an existential threat to the promise of self-rule which previous generations have fought to fulfill.
-Senator Chuck Schumer, Majority Leader of the United States Senate, D-NY

For more information, you can read the executive summary here, and you can read the entire report here.