The National Urban League has released the 50th edition of its “State of Black America” report, warning that gains made by Black Americans over decades of civil rights advocacy are being reversed under policy changes during the Trump administration’s current term, according to the Associated Press.
The report, titled “America at 250: Is the American Dream Dead?,” was released Thursday, July 30, during the opening plenary of the Urban League’s annual conference in Nashville, Tennessee, according to the National Urban League. It ties this year’s findings to the 250th anniversary of the country’s founding and to the 60th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
The report cites steep recent job losses as a central indicator: Black unemployment climbed to 7.8%, up from a historic low of 4.7% in 2023, according to The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education. Between November 2025 and February 2026, roughly 567,000 Black men and 250,000 to 300,000 Black women lost their jobs — losses the report estimates cost Black America about $87 billion in income.
The homeownership gap has also widened. As of July 2026, 44% of Black Americans own homes, compared with 73% of white Americans, a wider disparity than existed before the Fair Housing Act of 1968, according to U.S. News & World Report. The median Black household holds 15 cents in wealth for every dollar held by the median white household, the report found.
Urban League President and CEO Marc Morial said the report reflects an 18-month reversal across multiple measures. “We cannot be dejected. We cannot be cynical. We must act,” Morial said, according to the Associated Press.
The Urban League has published the report annually since 1976; the inaugural edition was described by the New York Times at the time as “a profoundly depressing document.”
