A leading advocate for equal rights argues infant mortality, access to education and unemployment remain major issues of inequality in the African-American community.
Julianne Malveaux is a labor economist, author and political commentator. She is also the former president of Bennett College, a historically black college for women in Greensboro, N.C.
Host Don Marsh talked with Malveaux in advance of her speech at the University of Missouri – St. Louis to commemorate the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday.
Malveaux said the nationwide problem of unemployment disproportionately affects African-Americans. “We’ve got a lot of disparities. The unemployment report just came out last week and we see still, as always, African-American unemployment at almost twice that of whites,” Malveaux said.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the unemployment rate for whites is 6.9% and 14% for blacks.
Listen to the full interview here: stlpublicradio.org
