BURSTA new study offers lawmakers a roadmap for addressing key issues affecting Black communities, including voting rights, economic opportunity and education equity.
The Congressional Black Caucus Foundation (CBCF) and the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies released Forward Together: Black Policy Playbook for an Equitable America on Monday.
The playbook is designed to serve as a “resource” for lawmakers, the organizations noted, and highlight that “when Black people make progress, all Americans benefit.”
“Together, we are equipping lawmakers, advocates, and changemakers with the tools they need to enact policies that move us closer to equity and justice for all,” said Nicole Austin-Hillery, president and CEO of the CBCF.
In total, the playbook offers policy recommendations on seven areas lawmakers “can continue to advocate and fight for” to create “an America where inequities are overcome and where everyone has an equal opportunity to pursue and achieve success and dignity.” The areas are voting rights and civic engagement; economic opportunity and advancement; workforce; education; health care; criminal legal system reform; and technology and telecommunications policies.
“African Americans continue to face a myriad of systemic issues in the United States that are strategically outlined in this much-needed policy playbook,” said Dedrick Asante-Muhammad, president of the Joint Center.
Each section offers an in-depth explanation of how current policies exacerbate racial disparities and offers action legislators can take to correct the disparities.
For example, under Voting Rights and Civic Engagement, the study calls for addressing voter ID laws, which disproportionately affect Black Americans and restrict their right to vote.
The study recommends expanding acceptable forms of ID for voting to include student IDs, employee IDs, and utility bills. It also recommends making voter rolls publicly accessible so voters can easily verify their registration status online and for the federal government to establish standards and guidelines for voter roll maintenance to ensure uniformity and fairness across states.
The study also details the impact of the racial wealth gap and urges lawmakers to address some of the gap’s driving factors, such as homeownership barriers.
The study recommends legislators increase access to fair and affordable housing through investments in public housing, rental assistance and housing development and repair. The study also calls for lawmakers to oppose the privatization of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and ensure that companies using AI comply with existing civil rights and consumer protection laws in order to maintain fair lending.
The study emphasized that though the seven areas listed do not offer full coverage of every issue that is important for Black equality, they do represent key areas for Black advancement.
“This is a pivotal moment for Black Americans,” said Jonathan Cox vice president of the Center for Policy Analysis and Research at CBCF. “History has shown us that progress is often met with resistance. However, we remain steadfast in our commitment to ensuring that Black communities have the resources, rights, and opportunities to thrive.”
The organizations note that they do not expect all of their policy recommendations to pass, particularly under the current White House administration.
The CBCF and the Joint Center said the Trump-Vance White House is rolling back steps taken by the Biden-Harris administration to address some of the nation’s longstanding racial disparities.
“Specifically, the harmful impacts of various efforts by President Trump and his new administration — through executive orders and other administrative actions in large part through the new White House Department of Government Efficiency — is undoing much of the Biden-Harris administration's progressive efforts,” the study reads. “The Trump-Vance administration is undermining and challenging civil rights, too, cutting not just diversity, equity, and inclusion programs out of the federal government but also historic civil rights protections stretching back to the 1960s.”
However, the study added, Black communities have faced the “reversal” of progress before. The policy recommendations listed in the study, the CBCF and the Joint Center said, furthers the promise of advancing the social, political and economic status of Black Americans.