Labor Market, Income and Poverty
The unemployment rate for African Americans peaked at 16.8 percent in March 2010, after experiencing a larger percentage-point increase from its pre-recession average to its peak than the overall unemployment rate did. Since then, the African-American unemployment rate has seen a larger percentage-point decline in the recovery, falling much faster than the overall unemployment rate over the last year.
The real median income of black households increased by 4.1 percent between 2014 and 2015.
The President enacted permanent expansions of the Earned Income Tax Credit and Child Tax Credit, which together now provide about 2 million African-American working families with an average tax cut of about $1,000 each.
A recent report from the Census Bureau shows the remarkable progress that American families have made as the recovery continues to strengthen. Real median household income grew 5.2 percent from 2014 to 2015, the fastest annual growth on record. Income grew for households across the income distribution, with the fastest growth among lower- and middle-income households. The number of people in poverty fell by 3.5 million, leading the poverty rate to fall from 14.8 percent to 13.5 percent, the largest one-year drop since 1968, with even larger improvements including for African Americans, Hispanic Americans, and children.
The poverty rate for African Americans fell faster in 2015 than in any year since 1999. While the poverty rate fell for across all racial and ethnic groups this year, it fell 2.1 percentage points (p.p.) for African Americans, resulting in 700,000 fewer African Americans in poverty.
African American children also made large gains in 2015, with the poverty rate falling 4.2 percentage points and 400,000 fewer children in poverty.
Health
Since the start of Affordable Care Act's first open enrollment period at the end of 2013, the uninsured rate among non-elderly African Americans has declined by more than half. Over that period, about 3 million uninsured nonelderly, African-American adults gained health coverage.
Teen pregnancy among African-American women is at an historic low. The birth rate per 1,000 African-American teen females has fallen from 60.4 in 2008, before President Obama entered office, to 34.9 in 2014.
Life expectancy at birth is the highest it’s ever been for African Americans. In 2014, life expectancy at birth was 72.5 years for African-American males and 78.4 for African-American females, the highest point in the historical series for both genders.
Education
The high school graduation rate for African-American students is at its highest point in history. In the 2013-2014 academic year, 72.5 percent of African-American public high school students graduated within four years.
Since the President took office, over one million more black and Hispanic students enrolled in college.
Among African-Americans and Hispanic students 25 and older, high school completion is higher than ever before. Among African Americans, Hispanics, and Asian students 25 and older, Bachelor’s degree attainment is higher than ever before. As of 2015, 88 percent of the African-American population 25 and older had at least a high school degree and 23percent had at least a Bachelor’s degree.
Support for HBCUs
The U.S. Department of Education (ED) is responsible for funding more than $4 billion for HBCUs each year.
Pell Grant funding for HBCU students increased significantly between 2007 and 2014, growing from $523 million to $824 million.
The President’s FY 2017 budget request proposes a new, $30 million competitive grant program, called the HBCU and Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs) Innovation for Completion Fund, designed to support innovative and evidence-based, student-centered strategies and interventions to increase the number of low-income students completing degree programs at HBCUs and MSIs.
The First in the World (FITW) program provided unique opportunities for HBCUs to compete for grants focused on innovation to drive student success.
In 2014, Hampton University received a grant award of $3.5 million.
In FY 2015, three FITW awards were made to HBCUs, including Jackson State University ($2.9 million), Delaware State University ($2.6 million) and Spelman College ($2.7 million).
While Congress did not fund the program in fiscal year 2016, the President’s 2017 budget request includes $100 million for the First in the World program, with up to $30 million set aside for HBCUs and MSIs.
gawddamn cannot let them hold an L for shyt...
we literally on our way to being a permanent underclass and NONE Of y'all demanding nothing for your votes... Spineless...
this is why I don't rock with y'all. Because yall not standing on business y'all affiliation is a religion. Y'all democrats first INSTEAD OF BLACK FIRST...
and just FYI y'all thought Hillary had it in the bag too and look what happened...
obamawhitehouse.archives.gov
Kamala not black not our job to protect her from the truth... We known about this shyt years ago here...
you talking about white supremacists but wasn't Biden out here'm screaming about not having his kids integrating into racial jungles and making the 94crime bill to destroy black folks?!? Now yall think he y'all friend?!?
