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Former Mayor of New Orleans, Marc Morial explains what to expect on this year’s SOBA, The State of Black America Program.
The town hall on The State of Black America airs tonight and is moderated by Roland S. Martin, host of New One Now on TV.
ABOUT THE STATE OF BLACK AMERICA:
The State of Black America® (SOBA), the National Urban League’s seminal annual publication, is one of the most highly-anticipated benchmarks and sources for thought leadership around racial equality in America across economics, employment, education, health, housing, criminal justice and civic participation. Vernon Jordan issued the first SOBA in 1976, in response to President Ford’s State of the Union message, which omitted all mention of the plight of black Americans, and Senator Edmund S. Muskie’s Democratic reply, which omitted the promise of racial equality from his list of endangered American promises. Since 2003, SOBA has included the Equality Index, a quantitative tool for tracking racial equality in America. Inspired by the Three Fifths Compromise of the 1787 Constitutional Convention, the Equality Index measures how far African Americans have progressed from 3/5 – or 60%, assuming 100% represents full equality with white America. The 2017 Equality Index of Black America is 72.3%.
ABOUT NATIONAL URBAN LEAGUE:
The National Urban League is a civil rights organization dedicated to economic empowerment in order to elevate the standard of living in historically underserved urban communities. Founded in 1910 and headquartered in New York City, the National Urban League spearheads the efforts of its local affiliates through the development of programs, public policy research and advocacy. Today, the National Urban League has 93 affiliates serving 300 communities, providing direct services that impact and improve the lives of more than 2 million people nationwide. To learn more about the National Urban League, visit http://www.nul.org and follow us on Twitter @NatUrbanLeague.
