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racial wealth gap

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Farmer working a mule-drawn plow.

Racism Isn’t the Only Cause of the Racial Wealth Gap

Widening the lens to capitalism itself could yield insights on how to close the gap.
by Eric Herschthal via The New Republic on March 6, 2025
Tents in Resurrection City in Washington D.C., a protest encampment on the National Mall.

The Poverty of Homeownership

On both sides of the color line, to own one’s home remains synonymous with freedom—even as real estate has proven itself to be relentlessly unequal.
by David Helps via Public Books on December 4, 2024
Statue of Jefferson Davis next to other leaders in Statuary Hall in the Capitol.

Many Wealthy Members of Congress are Descendants of Rich Slaveholders

Researchers measured lawmakers’ wealth and found that those whose Southern ancestors owned slaves before abolition have a higher net worth today.
by Neil K. R. Sehgal, Ashwini Sehgal via The Conversation on October 23, 2024
A black and white image of Black farmers on a road with farming vehicles.

Land Theft: The Alarming Racial Wealth Gap in America Today

Brea Baker on Black land ownership, historical injustice, and the hope for Black Americans to own more than one percent of the land.
by Brea Baker via Literary Hub on June 20, 2024
Ronald Reagan addressing the nation on tax reduction legislation from the Oval Office
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History Explains the Racial Wealth Gap

Ronald Reagan's economic policies exacerbated the racial wealth gap— and they've guided all his successors.
by Calvin Schermerhorn via Made By History on December 4, 2023
Graph of tax rates on top marginal earned income vs. long term capital gains, 1918-2020.

Why Is Wealth White?

In the 20th century, a moral economy of “whites-only” wealth animated federal policies and programs that created the propertied white middle class.
by Julia Ott via Southern Cultures on January 30, 2023
Vice President Harris at the Freedman’s Bank Forum in Washington on Oct. 4.
partner

The Freedman’s Bank Forum Obscures the Bank’s Real History

The bank’s history highlights flaws in using public-private partnerships to address racial inequality.
by Justene Hill Edwards via Made By History on October 27, 2022
A photograph of a protest against Jim Crow laws.

The Wealth of Two Nations: The U.S. Racial Wealth Gap, 1860 - 2020

The racial wealth gap is the largest of the economic disparities between Black and white Americans, and one of the most persistent.
by Moritz Schularick, Moritz Kuhn, Ellora Derenoncourt, Chi Hyun Kim via National Bureau Of Economic Research on June 15, 2022
Henry Holt, a farmer near Black River Falls, Wisconsin, in 1937, who was moved off land by the Resettlement Administration.

How the Government Helped White Americans Steal Black Farmland

There was once a thriving Black middle class based on farm ownership. But during the twentieth century, the USDA helped erase that source of wealth.
by Darrick Hamilton, Thomas W. Mitchell, Nathan Rosenberg, Dania Francis, Bryce Wilson Stucki via The New Republic on May 5, 2022
Illustration of a black mother working, doing housework, and caring for a child

Daddy Issues

The murderous hysteria over white patrimony is inseparable from the private capture of both economic opportunity and political authority.
by Bethany Moreton via Dissent on August 25, 2021
The city of Tulsa, with smoke billowing above the Black neighborhood of Greenwood

Burned from the Land: How 60 Years of Racial Violence Shaped America

The Tulsa race massacre of 1921 was one of the worst acts of racial violence in American history. It was also part of a larger pattern across the country.
by Tami Luhby, Breeanna Hare, Channon Hodge via CNN on May 30, 2021
Woman walking past a mural of Frederick Douglass
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Lessons for Sustaining Black Businesses After a Crisis

Private coalitions alone aren’t enough to address racial wealth gaps.
by Alyssa Ribeiro via Made By History on July 13, 2020

The Surprising Cross-Racial Saga of Modern Wealth Inequality

Why the “racial wealth gap” fails to explain economic inequality in black and white America.
by Adolph Reed Jr. via The New Republic on June 29, 2020
A group of seven black sharecroppers stand by the road.

Black Americans, Crucial Workers in Crises, Emerge Worse Off – Not Better

In many national crises, black Americans have been essential workers – but serving in crucial roles has not resulted in economic equality.
by Calvin Schermerhorn via The Conversation on June 17, 2020

White Americans' Hold on Wealth Is Old, Deep, and Nearly Unshakeable

White families quickly recuperated financial losses after the Civil War, then created a Jim Crow credit system.
by Brentin Mock via CityLab on September 3, 2019

American Wealth Is Broken

My family is a success story. We’re also evidence of the long odds African Americans face on the path to success.
by Maura Cheeks via The Atlantic on July 31, 2019
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Why The Racial Wealth Gap Persists, More Than 150 Years After Emancipation

When one system of economic oppression collapsed, new ones were created to fill the void.
by Calvin Schermerhorn via Made By History on June 19, 2019

Contract Buying Robbed Black Families In Chicago Of Billions

A new study on the toll of contract buying in Chicago during the 1950s and 1960s: $3 billion to $4 billion in lost black wealth.
by Natalie Y. Moore via WBEZ on May 30, 2019

Greater Homeownership isn’t the Answer to Ending Wealth Inequality

Black Americans have just one-tenth of the wealth of white Americans, and the difference in home values is a big part of the problem.
by Eshe Nelson via Quartz on April 19, 2018

Banking Against (Black) Capitalism

A review of "The Color of Money: Black Banks and the Racial Wealth Gap."
by Armond Towns, Carolyn Hardin via Los Angeles Review of Books on March 19, 2018
Customers at an African American bank in Harlem.
partner

We Need More Government, Not Less, in The War on Poverty

The myth of the “dependent” poor.
by Mehrsa Baradaran via Made By History on December 8, 2017

How Obama Destroyed Black Wealth

The nation's first African-American president was a disaster for black wealth.
by Matt Bruenig, Ryan Cooper via Jacobin on December 7, 2017
Children playing stick ball in the alley.

How the U.S. Government Locked Black Americans Out of Attaining the American Dream

The wealth gap between white Americans and black Americans is stark.
by Mehrsa Baradaran, Emma Roller via Splinter on October 11, 2017

The Racial Wealth Gap and the Problem of Historical Narration

The roots of inequality run a lot deeper than is often acknowledged.
by Destin Jenkins via Process: A Blog for American History on June 27, 2017
Children reading a storybook with a teacher.

What We've Learned In the 50 Years Since One Report Introduced the Black-White Achievement Gap

A Harvard education professor explains how far we've come in answering some of the most important questions in education since the famous Coleman report.
by Heather C. Hill via Chalkbeat on July 13, 2016
An aerial view of houses in Jersey City, United States on July 13, 2024.

Is The ‘Predatory’ Property Tax An Instrument Of Oppression?

According to Andrew Kahrl, the property tax has been used to disposs black homeowners since the 19th century.
by Joseph J. Thorndike via Forbes on March 24, 2025
Group of white people carrying a sign that thanks Donald Trump

Make South Africa Great Again?

How the country’s post-apartheid politics may inform the world view of Elon Musk and Donald Trump.
by Isaac Chotiner, William Shoki via The New Yorker on February 19, 2025

40 Acres and a Lie

We compiled Reconstruction-era documents to identify 1,250 formerly enslaved Black Americans given land—only to have it returned to their enslavers.
by Alexia Fernández Campbell, April Simpson, Pratheek Rebala via Mother Jones on June 13, 2024
Home of a Black family living in New Brighton, Pennsylvania, January 1940.

Taxed for Being Black

The long arc of racist plunder through local tax codes is shocking—or, well, maybe it’s not, really.
by Victor Ray via Democracy Journal on June 13, 2024
Edward Blum superimposed on the Supreme Court building.

The People Who Dismantled Affirmative Action Have a New Strategy to Crush Racial Justice

In throwing up new roadblocks to the use of private money to redress racial and economic inequality, the Fearless Fund ruling is antihistorical.
by David H. Gans via Slate on June 11, 2024
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