A typical black household has less than one tenth of a household wealth from a typical White family – almost exactly the same ratio as it existed in the 1960s, according to an analysis by Moritz Kuhn, a professor of economics at the University of Bonn in Germany.

The wealth gap narrowed somewhat in the following years, until the financial crisis more than a decade ago. More blacks become homeowners, but factors such as the continued separation of housing mean that the value of their housing – and their net worth – does not grow as much as white houseowners, said Edward Wolff, an economics professor at New York University. Also, black families tend to have higher mortgage debt rates.

The mortgage crisis that triggered the economic collapse reversed that profit. The level of home ownership among blacks has fallen from almost 50% in 2004 to a low level of 40% in recent years – a level not seen since the 1960s, according to the Urban Institute. The Congress enacted the Fair Housing Act in 1968 with the aim of banning racial discrimination.

“They were hit far harder than white families because of falling house prices,” Wolff said of Black homeowners. “Lower incomes plus the credit crunch mean that they are left out of the housing market even after 2010.”

The average income of Black households grew from the late 1960s to the 1970s after several federal reforms, including the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibited discrimination in employment and established an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. This helped minimize the difference between the average income of Black and White families during that time, experts said.

Also, expanding federal minimum wage coverage for agriculture, restaurants, nursing homes and other services – where nearly a third of black workers are employed – helped narrow the income gap between blacks and white Americans during that period, said Derenoncourt, who examined the impact of The Fair Labor Standards Act 1966.

After that, the split widened again as black Americans lost their place.

The researchers point to various factors to explain the reversal, including the weakening of federal efforts to combat structural racism and the decline in trade unions, as well as an increase in the number of families led by single black mothers and in Black detention rates. Male. And while American blacks get more education, they are still under-represented in jobs with higher skills and higher wages.

In 2019, the ratio of average income between blacks and white Americans has returned to the 1970s for men and women, according to an analysis by Samuel Myers, Jr., director of the Center for Human and Social Relations Roy Wilkins. Justice at the University of Minnesota.

“We have failed to change the mechanism used to reproduce wealth, with which we reproduce skills, with which we reproduce market results,” Myers said. “And this is race related.”

One area where racial inequality has shrunk over the past five decades is poverty.

In 1970, there were almost four times more non-Hispanic black Americans in poverty than non-Hispanic white Americans. In 2018, the ratio will be around 2.6.

A more consistent narrowing of the gap began in the 1990s, a period of economic prosperity and a hot labor market. Also, some government programs for low and medium income Americans – such as the Income Tax Credit – are adjusted to make work more attractive. And Congress overhauled welfare in 1996, reducing aid for families and prioritizing work.

This trend continued even during the 2008 crisis, which increased financial difficulties among all Americans, and in recent years.

However, about one in five black Americans lives in poverty, said Christopher Wimer, co-director of the Center for Poverty & Social Policy at Columbia University.

“While it has gone down a lot in the last 50 years, it is still a very high number,” Wimer said.

Other areas where the gap between races is narrowed is part of each group employed. That difference has been cut by almost half since 1972, despite all the improvements occurring this decade, which saw stable job growth until the coronavirus pandemic began in March.

“In a tight labor market, African-Americans who were previously excluded now get jobs,” said Olugbenga Ajilore, senior economist at the left-leaning Center for American Progress.

Until the outbreak, unemployment has reached or approached 50-year lows for several months.

Even so, the problems that have plagued black Americans for decades still exist. Employing discrimination today has put black unemployment rates at or above twice the white unemployment rate for most of the time, Ajilore said.

“This positive era still has fundamental problems, which make this pandemic clear,” Ajilore said.