![]() “These things are interconnected,” said Marks, a Queens, New York, native, who started the National Training Institute on Race and Equity. He also cited the post-Great Recession homeownership figures, sadly remembering the “For Sale” signs that sprouted throughout his southwest Atlanta community from African American residents who took out subprime mortgages and lost their homes. Marks said the economic disparity, even among African Americans in this region, is a result of underperforming schools, crime, and white and black flight from neighborhoods still grappling with the effects of discriminatory housing policies. Explore How well do you know Atlanta’s historically black neighborhoods? It remains so for those who study the issue, like Bryant Marks Sr., an associate psychology professor at Morehouse College, King’s alma mater. Martin Luther King Jr., before his assassination in 1968. Upward economic mobility for African Americans and the poor was the last mission of the Rev. That’s 7 percentage points higher than the national rate. Still, the homeownership rate for African Americans in the region is 48%. Median household income for African Americans has declined in Clayton, DeKalb and Fulton counties since the Great Recession that crippled the U.S. Homeownership among African Americans - a key component of wealth building - about 25 percentage points lower than for whites a decade ago, has since declined at a greater rate than for whites, ARC research shows. More than 30% of the region’s African American adults have college degrees, the fifth-highest percentage in the nation, according to the website Black Demographics.īut despite Atlanta’s benefits, many blacks in Atlanta faced with overcoming generational poverty still struggle to build wealth. Atlanta’s vast collection of colleges - including six historically black colleges - continues to be a pipeline for many of these jobs. In 20 years, Fulton County is projected to have a net increase of about 47,600 jobs for African Americans, the third-largest increase in the nation, according to a report last year on black employment by McKinsey & Company, a global management consulting firm. In Forsyth County, it’s $90,760, according to 2018 Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC) data, the highest in the region.Īnd more opportunities are on the horizon. The median annual household income for African Americans here is nearly $42,000, higher than most U.S. ![]() Census data shows slightly more than 2 million African Americans live in metro Atlanta, second only to the New York City region. The possibilities of a more prosperous life have drawn many African Americans - particularly from the Northeast - attracted, in part, by larger homes in the Atlanta suburbs they couldn’t afford in those places. ![]() ![]() Eight black-owned businesses in the Atlanta area were among the nation's 100 highest-grossing African American companies, according to a recent Black Enterprise magazine report. That's second only to the New York region, which has nearly twice as many African American adults. Metro Atlanta has more than 7,600 African American-owned businesses with paid employees, the most recent U.S. The success stories, like Starks’, are plenty, but there’s also a disproportionate percentage of African Americans - particularly inside the city limits - who have not shared in it. Starks restructured her finances through wiser spending, investing more of her money, working two jobs and renting the Atlanta property. ![]() The achievements have been important to the region's standing as the economic capital of the Deep South. Its history of creating black wealth includes landmark legislation in 1974 by the city of Atlanta that opened doors for African American businesses to get city contracts and the massive film studio Tyler Perry opened here last year. » FROM 2018: Wealth gap between whites and blacks widened after Great RecessionĪtlanta, many say, is best positioned to support African Americans seeking financial prosperity. » RELATED: Atlanta fast becoming a mecca for African Americans in tech ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |