"Over the past half century, I would say that for many indicators things have stagnated," said Ellora Derenoncourt, assistant professor of economics and public policy at the University of California at Berkeley. "The wealth gap, the income gap, the income gap."
The chasm of wealth narrowed somewhat in the years that followed, up to the financial crisis a little over ten years ago. More blacks have become homeowners, but factors such as continued residential segregation have meant that the value of their homes - and their equity - has not increased as much as for white owners, said Edward Wolff, professor of economics at New York University. . In addition, black families tended to have higher mortgage debt levels.
The mortgage crisis that triggered this economic collapse canceled out those gains. The homeownership rate among blacks fell from nearly 50% in 2004 to the low range of 40% in recent years - a level not seen since the 1960s, according to the Urban Institute. Congress enacted the Fair Housing Act in 1968 with the aim of prohibiting racial discrimination.
"They have been criticized much harder than white families by the collapse in house prices," Wolff said of the black owners. "Falling incomes and tight credit have meant that they were excluded from the housing market even after 2010."
The median income of black households increased from the late 1960s to the 1970s following several federal reforms, including the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibited discrimination in employment and established the Commission to equal employment opportunities. This helped reduce the difference between the median incomes of black and white families during this period, experts said.
In addition, expanding federal minimum wage coverage to agriculture, restaurants, nursing homes and other services - where almost a third of black workers were employed - helped reduce the earnings gap between blacks and white Americans during this period, said Derenoncourt, who is researching the impact of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1966.
After that, the gap widened further as black Americans lost ground.
Researchers point to a variety of factors to explain the reversal, including a weakening of federal efforts to combat structural racism and a decline in unionization, as well as an increase in the number of families headed by single black mothers and rates of imprisonment of Black Men. And while black Americans have more education, they are still underrepresented in more skilled and better-paying jobs.
In 2019, the ratio of average earnings between black and white Americans fell back to what it was in the 1970s for men and women, according to an analysis by Samuel Myers, Jr., director of the Roy Wilkins Center for Human Relations and Social Justice at the University of Minnesota.
"We have failed to change the mechanisms by which we reproduce wealth, by which we reproduce skills, by which we reproduce market results," said Myers. "And it's related to race."
One of the areas where the racial gap has narrowed over the past five decades is poverty.
In 1970, there were almost four times more non-Hispanic black Americans in poverty than non-Hispanic white Americans. In 2018, this ratio was around 2.6.
A more consistent narrowing of the divide began in the 1990s, a period of economic prosperity and a warm labor market. In addition, some government programs for low- and middle-income Americans - such as the Earned Income Tax Credit - have been adjusted to make work more attractive. And Congress revised welfare in 1996, cutting aid to families and prioritizing employment.
This trend continued even during the 2008 crisis, which increased the financial distress of all Americans, and in recent years.
Yet about one in five black Americans live in poverty, said Christopher Wimer, co-director of the Center on Poverty & Social Policy at Columbia University.
"Although it has dropped significantly over the past 50 years, it is still a surprisingly high number," said Wimer.
Another area where the gap between races is narrowing is the share of each group that is employed. This difference has been almost halved since 1972, although all the improvement occurred during this decade, which saw steady employment growth until the coronavirus pandemic in March.
"In tight labor markets, African Americans who were previously excluded now find jobs," said Olugbenga Ajilore, senior economist at the Left Center for American Progress.
Black Americans are generally more subject to the vagaries of the economy than their white peers, he said. During recessions, the percentage of blacks who are employed declines more than the share of whites who are employed. And when the market improves, white Americans are the first to be hired.
Until the epidemic, unemployment was at its lowest level in nearly 50 years for several months.
Yet the problems that have plagued black Americans for decades persist. Discrimination in continuous hiring has kept black unemployment rates at or above double the white unemployment rate for much of this period, Ajilore said.
And the gains in the employment-to-population ratio do not show what types of jobs Black Americans have landed - which are disproportionately low wage jobs that lack benefits. This is one of the reasons why they have been hit hard by the coronavirus.
"This positive era still had underlying problems, which this pandemic has brought to light," said Ajilore.
