It’s been 50 years since the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy; the release of the Kerner Commission report; and the creation of the Poor People’s Campaign. The Kerner Commission warned that America was moving toward two separate and unequal societies—one black and one white. Has that prediction borne out? What has changed? What has stayed the same? Wealth continues to be the best indicator of an individual or family’s financial net worth—and it is still highly unequal. Today, for every $1 a black family owns in wealth, a white family owns $10. Moreover, broad labor market and mortgage market discrimination; housing segregation; pay inequity; and other barriers to closing the wealth gap persist.
Please join us for an in-depth discussion about systematic inequality in America, where we will examine how direct action must be taken to change American systems built on suppression, oppression, and the concentration of power and wealth.
Opening Remarks:
Neera Tanden, President and CEO of the Center for American Progress
Featured Panelists:
Darrick Hamilton, Director of Doctoral Program in Public and Urban Policy; Professor of Economics and Urban Policy; The New School
Valerie Wilson, Director, Program on Race, Ethnicity, and the Economy; Economic Policy Institute
Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis, Co-director, Poor People’s Campaign; Co-director, Kairos Center for Religions, Rights, and Social Justice
Kenny Diggs, Political Analyst, AFSCME
Moderated by:
Danyelle Solomon, Senior Director, Progress 2050, Center for American Progress