The State of Black America: Underemployed

A look at how African-Americans are faring in key areas.

Still Far to Go - Each year in its State of Black America report, the National Urban League gauges the progress African-Americans have made in key areas, such as education, employment, economics and criminal justice, and produces an equality index of their status in those areas compared to whites and Latinos. This year's theme is "One Nation Underemployed." In the 2014 edition, released on April 3, the NUL also looked at how several cities with the highest African-American and Latino populations have fared. Here are some of the findings and quotes from a few of the several thoughtful issues written by leading Black experts. –  Joyce Jones (@BETpolitichick)(Photo: National Urban League)
What Is the Equality Index? - The NUL likes to use a pie to explain its equality index. A whole pie equals 100 percent, so at 71.2 percent of overall equality to whites, African-Americans are missing nearly 30 percent of the pie.  (Photo: Tomas Del Amo/Getty Images)
Stuck in Place - In key areas, African-Americans experienced little change or lost ground between 2013 and 2014.Economics took a slight dip from 56.3 percent to 55.5 percent Social justice fell from 56.9 percent to 56.8 percent Civic engagement index improved from 99.9 percent to 104 percent Health stayed at 76.8 percent Education stayed at 76.8 percent      (Photo: William Thomas Cain/Getty Images)Ursula Burns - Given that screens continue to take more priority over paper as the years go by, Xerox CEO Ursula Burns’s ability to transform a company known primarily for its carbon copies into a profitable and viable company is a noteworthy achievement. She began her career as a summer intern at Xerox in 1980 and went on to become the first African-American woman CEO to head a Fortune 500 company.(Photo: Paul Morigi/Getty Images for FORTUNE)

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Still Far to Go - Each year in its State of Black America report, the National Urban League gauges the progress African-Americans have made in key areas, such as education, employment, economics and criminal justice, and produces an equality index of their status in those areas compared to whites and Latinos. This year's theme is "One Nation Underemployed." In the 2014 edition, released on April 3, the NUL also looked at how several cities with the highest African-American and Latino populations have fared. Here are some of the findings and quotes from a few of the several thoughtful issues written by leading Black experts. –  Joyce Jones (@BETpolitichick)(Photo: National Urban League)

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