When
I started my life in public service four decades ago, it was to tear
down the barriers that hold people back from developing their talents
and achieving their dreams. That’s what I’m still fighting for today.
But
more than half a century after Rosa Parks sat and Dr. King marched and
John Lewis bled, race still plays too big a part in determining who gets
ahead in America—and who gets left behind.
In America today, one
in three Black men will go to prison in their lifetime. African
American women earn 64 cents and Latina women 56 cents for every dollar a
White man earns. African Americans are nearly three times more likely
to be denied a mortgage as whites. The median Black family has just
eight percent the wealth of the median White family. Two-thirds of
children living in poverty today are African American or Latino. And
Black children are 500 percent more likely to die from asthma than White
kids.