As grief and despair over the racially-disproportionate impact of the COVID pandemic and police brutality erupted in unrest across America’s cities this summer, the National Urban League mobilized to channel the protests in the streets into power at the polls.
NAREB 2020 State of Housing in Black America (SHIBA) report shows how uneven mortgage lending practices, cumulative disadvantages and COVID-19 continue to obstruct growth of Black homeownership
“All Americans deserve equitable access to affordable housing and the physical, emotional and financial security it represents,” said Lisa Rice, CEO, National Fair Housing Alliance. “JPMorgan Chase’s new commitments will help make owning or renting a reality for more Black and Latinx families, whose housing access has been impeded by decades of systemic racism and are now disproportionately affected by the impact of COVID-19. Addressing the affordability crisis, now overlaid with the pandemic, will require many players on many fronts, and these commitments are concrete, meaningful steps in the right direction.”
Marc H. Morial, President and CEO of the National Urban League, and Sadiqa N. Reynolds, Esq., President & CEO of the Louisville Urban League, issued the following joint statement in response to a grand jury’s failure to seek justice for the fatal shooting of Breonna Taylor.
“We have COVID, we have anti-Black, we have the very tenuous economy and we have the climate catastrophe,” said Dr. Ladson-Billings.
Ridesharing app Lyft announced an initiative that would provide 1.5 million rides to make transportation accessible to underserved communities. The company joined forces with 11 organizations including The National Urban League, Black Women’s Roundtable and the NAACP.
City Attorney Mike Feuer announced that Los Angeles has joined other cities and national organizations in filing a lawsuit to block the shortening of the U.S. Census response deadline, now set for the end of September.
Morial said that there needs to be immediate and long term action to mend the effects of COVID-19 on the African American community and the first step is recognizing that the health system in American is “broken.” “The entire system, it has to be done through an equity lens in a significant way,” Morial said.
Earlier, several civil rights organizations noted watching with vigilance as Senate negotiations and, later, voting in both chambers took place. “We know that when the economy goes into decline, people of color always bear the brunt,” said Teresa Candori, communications director for the National Urban League. “We will be fighting to make sure the most vulnerable communities are not an afterthought.”
The Community Reinvestment Act was enacted in 1977 as a direct response to redlining, an unethical practice whereby banks and other lending institutions made it extremely difficult, if not impossible, for residents of poor, inner-city communities to borrow money, get a mortgage, take out insurance or access other financial services. Redlining did not take into consideration an individual’s qualifications or creditworthiness.
The OCC hopes stakeholders will carefully review the proposed changes and submit comments so that a final rule can be issued in the first half of 2020.
A Saturday morning shooting rampage in El Paso, Texas on August 3 took the lives of 22 people, and seriously injured more than two dozen others. Reportedly, the alleged shooter wanted to kill as many Mexicans as he could. Armed with safety glasses, ear coverings and an assault-style rifle, the shooter entered a Walmart store during a back-to-school sale.
U.S. Senator Kamala D. Harris (D-CA) and U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY-14) on Wednesday introduced the Fair Chance at Housing Act of 2019, legislation to remove barriers to obtaining federal housing assistance for individuals with criminal records and their families. The proposal is a comprehensive reform of the eviction and screening policies so individuals with a criminal history have a fair chance at housing assistance.
African Americans have long been punished for appearing in professional or academic settings while wearing their natural hair. In 2010, a Black woman in Alabama refused to cut her dreadlocks, and a job offer disappeared. Last December, a video of a Black high school wrestler who was forced get his dreadlocks cut off before a match, went viral. Not long ago, a Google search for “unprofessional hair” returned results mostly featuring Black women wearing their natural curls or braids.
In May, the state Assembly voted 44-19 in favor of the legislation.
If passed and signed into law, AB 1505 would strip away the existing right charter schools have to an appeal process if a local school board denies its petition for authorization or renewal.
Laster joined leaders of the California chapters of two prominent civil rights organizations, the National Action Network (NAN) and the National Urban League (NUL), for the meeting held at the Governor’s office at the Capitol. Both groups have been outspoken opponents of the legislation.