WASHINGTON — African-Americans must fight to protect the socioeconomic and political gains made under the Obama administration and vigorously oppose imminent threats from the Trump administration to turn back the clock, the longtime leader of the National Urban League said Tuesday.
“It would be difficult to pinpoint any moment in recent history where so much economic and social progress stood at such dire risk as it does today,” Marc Morial, president of the National Urban League, said at the organization’s D.C. bureau.
He said that, while the investments in “vital programs” were protected under the proposed fiscal 2017 budget, “we must remain vigilant because the ‘skinny budget’ for next year includes these massive proposed cuts for vital services.”
Among other things, Morial stressed the need to remain vigilant against discriminatory voter laws and work to protect consent decrees that monitor police departments for discriminatory practices — particularly as the Department of Justice under the Trump administration reversed course and stopped fighting a discriminatory voter ID law in Texas — as the Obama administration had done — and to “review” various consent decrees.
Morial made his remarks as the National Urban League released the 41st edition of its annual State of Black America report. The report states that African-Americans have an average of 72.3 percent in “equality” across a range of categories that include health, economics and education — down 0.1 percentage points from last year.
Morial hailed the report as a go-to resource for a series of statistics that range from unemployment and college attainment rates to traffic stops by race.
He also highlighted the report’s key policy prescription — implementation of the organization’s “Main St. Marshall Plan,” — which is a $4 trillion, 10-year investment in America’s infrastructure and in education and job training.
