{"id":46667,"date":"2022-02-15T18:17:50","date_gmt":"2022-02-15T23:17:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.aclu.org\/issues\/race-and-economic-justice"},"modified":"2025-06-17T17:07:49","modified_gmt":"2025-06-17T21:07:49","slug":"race-and-economic-justice","status":"publish","type":"issue","link":"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/issues\/racial-justice\/race-and-economic-justice","title":{"rendered":"Race and Economic Justice"},"parent":46673,"menu_order":1,"template":"","class_list":["post-46667","issue","type-issue","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":{"featured-image":210880,"intro":"Through litigation and advocacy, the ACLU works to remedy deeply entrenched sources of inequality and ensure that access to opportunity and the ability to build wealth is available to all.","what-you-need-to-know":[{"highlighted":"10%","description":"Under 10 percent of tenants are represented in legal counsel in evictions, compared to 90 percent of landlords. "},{"highlighted":"30%","description":"In 2022, the gap between Black and white families\u2019 home ownership was 30 percent (45 percent of Black families owned a home, compared to 75 percent of white families)."},{"highlighted":"$33,000","description":"The Black-white income gap in 2018 was $33,000, when the median income for a Black family of three was $51,600 compared to $84,600 for a white family of the same size."}],"promo":{"description":"","button":"","url":""},"faq":{"description":"","faq-items":[{"title":"What is the racial wealth gap?","content":"The economic position of Black Americans relative to white Americans over the years <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/news\/racial-justice\/the-racial-wealth-gap-is-a-civil-liberties-issue\">remains precarious at best<\/a>. Over 150 years after the Emancipation Proclamation was signed, descendants of enslaved people own just 1 percent of the nation\u2019s total wealth. Even emancipation, civil rights, increases to education, and improved employment have not substantially advanced Black people\u2019s democratic participation in our economic system. Furthermore, the 2008 financial crisis, which resulted from targeted discrimination and then the financialization of that discrimination, wiped out 53 percent of Black wealth, compared to 16 percent of white wealth, permanently devastating Black communities."},{"title":"What does \u201cfair housing\u201d mean?","content":"Historic and ongoing segregation and housing discrimination in our country have prevented Black people and other people of color, women, LGBTQ people, families with children, people with disabilities, immigrants, and many more from living in affordable housing in communities that offer greater opportunity. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/news\/racial-justice\/why-fair-housing-is-key-to-systemic-equality\">Housing is a basic human right<\/a>, and equal access to housing is a civil right guaranteed under our laws."},{"title":"How are Black communities disproportionately impacted by housing discrimination?","content":"Racial inequality is at the root of and continues to perpetuate housing injustice across communities. Criminal records screening disproportionately harms people of color, especially Black renters, including because of stark racial disparities that exist in the United States legal system due to over-policing and systemic bias. <a href=\"https:\/\/evictionlab.org\/demographics-of-eviction\/\">Black women<\/a> face much higher rates of eviction than others, and the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/news\/racial-justice\/clearing-the-record-how-eviction-sealing-laws-can-advance-housing-access-for-women-of-color\">scarlet \u201cE\u201d<\/a> on their records locks them out of better housing \u2014 along with the better schools and jobs that often accompany it. White people remain much more likely than their Black peers to be homeowners, even after accounting for factors like location and education."}]},"featured-stories":[{"image":135126,"title":"Visualizing the Racial Wealth Gap","content-type":"news_and_commentary","last-updated":null,"description":"From homeownership to income, systemic inequities perpetuate disparities in wealth. ","url":"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/news\/racial-justice\/visualizing-the-racial-wealth-gap"}],"latest-stories":[{"image":108800,"title":"Why Fair Housing is Key to Systemic Equality","type":"news_and_commentary","url":"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/news\/racial-justice\/why-fair-housing-is-key-to-systemic-equality"},{"image":3767,"title":"Minnesota City\u2019s Ordinance Illegally Targets People of Color in Rental Housing","type":"news_and_commentary","url":"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/news\/racial-justice\/minnesota-citys-ordinance-illegally-targets-people"},{"image":"","title":"ACLU Comment Regarding Tenant Protections for Enterprise-Backed Multifamily Properties","type":"document","url":"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/documents\/aclu-comment-regarding-tenant-protections-for-enterprise-backed-multifamily-properties"}],"whats-at-stake":{"title":"What's at Stake","description":"For much of the country\u2019s history, formal and explicit racial restrictions prevented people of color from accessing the mainstays of economic life, including employment and homeownership. Though explicit racial classifications were outlawed by the civil rights statutes passed in the 1960s, yawning disparities in wealth, income, and other economic opportunities remain, preventing us from achieving true racial justice in America. These racially disparate outcomes reflect a combination of covert discrimination, structural inequality, and implicit biases, and they have become more severe in the continuing aftermath of the economic crisis of 2008.\r\n\r\nFocusing especially on issues relating to credit and homeownership, the ACLU uses litigation and other advocacy to remedy deeply entrenched sources of inequality and ensure that access to opportunity is not allocated according to race. Because, as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., put it, \u201cWhat does it profit a man to be able to eat at an integrated lunch counter if he doesn\u2019t have enough money to buy a hamburger?\u201d"},"actions":"","drupal-id":241,"is_hidden_issue":""},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.1.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>American Civil Liberties Union<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Through litigation and advocacy, the ACLU works to remedy deeply entrenched sources of inequality and ensure that access to opportunity and the ability to build wealth is available to all.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Race and Economic Justice | American Civil Liberties Union\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Through litigation and advocacy, the ACLU works to remedy deeply entrenched sources of inequality and ensure that access to opportunity and the ability to build wealth is available to all.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/issues\/racial-justice\/race-and-economic-justice\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"American Civil Liberties Union\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-06-17T21:07:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@aclu\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/issues\/racial-justice\/race-and-economic-justice\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/issues\/racial-justice\/race-and-economic-justice\",\"name\":\"Race and Economic Justice | American Civil Liberties Union\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2022-02-15T23:17:50+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-06-17T21:07:49+00:00\",\"description\":\"Through litigation and advocacy, the ACLU works to remedy deeply entrenched sources of inequality and ensure that access to opportunity and the ability to build wealth is available to all.\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/issues\/racial-justice\/race-and-economic-justice\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/\",\"name\":\"American Civil Liberties Union\",\"description\":\"The ACLU dares to create a more perfect union \u2014 beyond one person, party, or side. Our mission is to realize this promise of the United States Constitution for all and expand the reach of its guarantees.\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"American Civil Liberties Union","description":"Through litigation and advocacy, the ACLU works to remedy deeply entrenched sources of inequality and ensure that access to opportunity and the ability to build wealth is available to all.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Race and Economic Justice | American Civil Liberties Union","og_description":"Through litigation and advocacy, the ACLU works to remedy deeply entrenched sources of inequality and ensure that access to opportunity and the ability to build wealth is available to all.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/issues\/racial-justice\/race-and-economic-justice","og_site_name":"American Civil Liberties Union","article_modified_time":"2025-06-17T21:07:49+00:00","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_site":"@aclu","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/issues\/racial-justice\/race-and-economic-justice","url":"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/issues\/racial-justice\/race-and-economic-justice","name":"Race and Economic Justice | American Civil Liberties Union","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/#website"},"datePublished":"2022-02-15T23:17:50+00:00","dateModified":"2025-06-17T21:07:49+00:00","description":"Through litigation and advocacy, the ACLU works to remedy deeply entrenched sources of inequality and ensure that access to opportunity and the ability to build wealth is available to all.","inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/issues\/racial-justice\/race-and-economic-justice"]}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/","name":"American Civil Liberties Union","description":"The ACLU dares to create a more perfect union \u2014 beyond one person, party, or side. 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