Wealthy Black Executives Take on Racial Inequality
The Black Economic Alliance PAC wants to help black Americans get work, wealth and wages, but members are still debating policy.
Tony Coles and Charles Phillips, co-chairs of the Black Economic Alliance.
Photographer: Wayne Lawrence for Bloomberg Markets
More than a half-century after the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was enacted and Shirley Chisholm became the first black woman elected to Congress, African American households still have half the income of white families. Sure, black unemployment is close to a record low, as President Donald Trump points out. But it’s still almost twice as high as the jobless rate for whites. The wealth gap is wide: Black families with bachelor’s degrees or higher have a net worth of about $68,000, about one-sixth that of white households with similar educations.
So for one group of black executives, the message was clear: The wealth we’ve accrued comes with the power—and responsibility—to enact change.