Morial Releases ‘Main Street Marshall Plan’ Saying the State of Black America is ‘Locked Out’

By Hazel Trice Edney

(TriceEdneyWire.com)
Declaring that the state of Black America is “locked out” of economic, social and educational equality, National Urban League President/CEO Marc Morial said in his State of Black America Address this week that at least $1 trillion must be invested in America’s urban communities in order to bring a semblance of justice. “As President Obama wraps up his final months as the nation’s first African-American president, we begin to assess the progress Black America has made under his administration. How well has the nation recovered from the worst economic crisis it has seen in generations?  How much closer to the goal of universal healthcare coverage has the Affordable Care Act –  Obamacare – gotten us?   

“As President Obama himself said in his commencement address at Howard University, ‘My election did not create a post-racial society.’” Morial said. “Mr. President, you are right.  The 2016 National Urban League Equality Index tells an all too familiar story of persistent racial disparity in American life. Your Presidency has made a difference, yet we cannot, in eight short years, eliminate America’s long-standing challenges around racial inequity.”

An enthusiastic audience of hundreds packed into the Knight Studio in Downtown D.C.’s Newseum, May 17, in commemoration of the NUL’s 40th annual State of Black America. 
“With this milestone 40th Anniversary State of Black America, the National Urban League proposes a sweeping and decisive solution to the nation’s persistent social and economic disparities. We call it the Main Street Marshall Plan: Moving from Poverty to Prosperity,” Morial said in the speech, which was also livestreamed and televised on C-SPAN. “This bold and strategic investment in America’s urban communities requires a multi-annual and multi-pronged commitment of $1 trillion over the next five years that would course correct our main streets.”
The following are some of the $1 trillion solutions, from the NUL perspective, outlined in this year’s State of Black America(SOBA) report:
• Universal early childhood education 
• A federal living wage of $15 per hour, indexed to inflation 
• A plan to fund comprehensive urban infrastructure 
• A new Main Street small- and micro-business financing plan focusing on minority-and-women-owned businesses 
• Expansion of summer youth employment programs 
• Expanded homeownership strategies • Expansion of the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) 
• Targeted re-entry workforce training programs administered through community-based organizations
• Doubling the Pell Grant program to make college more affordable 
• Expansion of financial literacy and homebuyer education and counseling 
• Expansion of the low-income housing voucher “Section 8” program 
• Establishment of Green Empowerment Zones in neighborhoods with high unemployment 
• Affordable high-speed broadband and technology for all 
• Increased federal funding to local school districts to help eliminate resource equity gaps
Morial concluded, “My message to the next President is this: The disparities are real. The conditions are tough. The times demand real leadership. Does our nation have the leadership and the will to confront yesterday’s problems, to forge a better tomorrow? And that is the State of Black America.”