MLK to Obama: A dream realized?

How much has changed in nearly a half century?

• African-Americans' median income is just 61 percent that of whites, and blacks are nearly twice as likely to be unemployed and to lack health insurance as whites, government figures show.
• Slightly more than 25 percent of blacks live below the poverty line; the poverty rate for whites is 9.3 percent, according to a census survey. Poverty rates for black children, though down since 1963, remain 2 times higher than for whites.
• Homeownership: The rate for whites hovers above three-quarters; for blacks, less than half, census figures show.
• Whites 65 or older receive 25 times as much income from retirement investments as elderly blacks, according to a 2008 report by the nonpartisan Urban Institute.

Is there any good news?

Sure: In the labor market, African-Americans as a group are moving out of service and unskilled jobs, comprise a growing percentage of the technology work force, and are moving into more management positions.

The proportion of blacks earning upper incomes has improved, too. As of July 2008, four of the Fortune 500 companies were headed by black chief executives. (Oprah Winfrey is the lone African-American on Forbes' list of 469 U.S. billionaires.)

These accomplishments are tempered by the fact that the U.S. population is 13 percent black. Still, "those are clearly heights to which you would not have seen African-Americans move at the time of the 'I Have a Dream' speech," says Margaret Simms, a senior fellow at the Urban Institute.

Video   For Best Buy workers, a 'racial' orientation April 4: On the 40th anniversary of the assassination of MLK, employees at Best Buy participate in a racial history "immersion" program -- part of a commitment to diversity that the company says has strengthened its bottom line. NBC's Ron Mott reports. Nightly News

A fair amount of this progress is connected to higher educational attainment, which, in her opinion, is aided by school programs, desegregation and affirmative action in college enrollment. Carrie P. Meek, a retired congresswoman from Florida who successfully fought to reduce class sizes in urban elementary schools, agrees. Reaching black students early is the key and more needs to be done, she says, but "I think we have progressed."

More good news: Black Enterprise magazine's list of the top 100 black-owned companies reveals firms that are major suppliers to automakers, computer and construction companies, and others.

And yet, most black-owned enterprises still control a very small share of America's economic activity, says William Spriggs, chair of the Department of Economics at Howard University.

In 2002, black-owned firms did $88.6 billion in sales and employed 750,000 workers. Sounds impressive — until you consider that the U.S. economy did $22.6 trillion in sales and that 17.8 million blacks are in the labor force.

Black firms face two barriers, Spriggs says: "They still can't get access to real capital. ... Secondly, you need business-to-business sales to grow. And the amount of discrimination in the business-to-business market is very high."

Think of obscure "venture capital funds" and "private equity funds" as the modern-day Community Bank — a bank that's willing to take more risks on whites than blacks, says Betsy Zeidman, director of the Center for Emerging Domestic Markets and a research fellow at the Milken Institute. That's partly because few minorities control such funds and partly because "the African-American community has traditionally been involved in service-type businesses that are not necessarily going to attract equity capital."

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This exacerbates what is, perhaps, the biggest hurdle to parity between whites and blacks in America — the "legacy gap," or wealth gap.

White households have more than 14 times the net wealth of black households — $88,651, compared to $5,988 — according to a 2004 study by the Pew Research Center.

The wealth gap, however, is visible in more than just disparities in savings, says Andrew Young, the former U.N. ambassador and Atlanta mayor who was one of King's principal lieutenants.

"Whites have not only inherited wealth from their ancestors for a longer period of time, they inherit an understanding of our financial system," says Young.

Even in arenas generally thought better integrated — in sports, media and the military, for example — few blacks are in control as franchise owners or top-level leaders. In the U.S. military, blacks are 17 percent of the total force but just 9 percent of all officers. (Only one of the 38 four-star generals serving as of May was black.)

Hollywood is "sensitive" to issues of race and the industry is moving in the right direction, says Louis Gossett Jr., an Oscar-winning actor who is black. However, "the people who still call the shots ... are of one race."

Film projects on racial themes with black leading actors get less financing and distribution, he says. "In fact, my best Caucasian friend often says, 'I'll handle this so we can all be equal.' Now, we should probably handle these things together."

Blacks' limited opportunity to build wealth for most of American history is part of the debate about issues such as affirmative action, says Bositis.

"Whites talk like, 'Well, the playing field is even now.' But the playing field in terms of legacy is not."

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