FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Leslie A. Dunbar, (212)558-5438

Bob Ellison/Ayesha London, 202/333-6181

New York, NY, Jul. 26, 2000–The National Urban League today released its annual report on the progress of African Americans, The State of Black America. This year\\\'s edition, titled, The State of Black America 2000: Blacks in the New Millennium, is a collection of 14 essays that expound on African Americans\\\' place in, among other areas, politics, academic achievement, technology, business and economics.

And, as The State of Black America editor and Publications Director Lee A. Daniels notes in the book\\\'s foreword, the essays reveal both the headway African Americans have made in these sectors, and the distance they still have left travel to achieve parity of position and equality of opportunity with the majority.

As is the tradition of The State of Black America, this years\\\' edition also proposes solutions to the problems it reveals. For example, in his essay, Beacons in a New Millennium: Reflections on 21^st Century Leaders and Leadership, National Urban League President Hugh B. Price ponders the changing face of Black leadership, and the perceived dearth of Black leaders.

Price points out that in order to identify the 21^st century\\\'s new and perhaps hidden leaders, we must redefine leadership to include a variety of fields–business and academia, for example–and embrace a leadership that is less visible than we have traditionally seen, such as elective or appointive policy roles.

Other findings in other areas covered by the League\\\'s The State of Black America 2000: Blacks in the New Millennium include:

Politics–Eddie N. Williams, president, The Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies and Margaret C. Simms, vice president for research at the Joint Center, note in their essay, The Evolution of Black Political Power, Black political and economic advancement since the beginning of the 20th century has been considerable.

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However, they continue, Blacks are still under-represented relative to their proportion of the voting population, and because of the Republican Party’s standoffishness toward the Black electorate, they remain excluded from an important segment of the ranks of power in this period when Republicans control the executive and/or legislative branches at both the federal and state levels.

Academic achievement–Director of the Frederick Patterson Institute of the United Negro College Fund, contributorKimberly Edelin Freeman\\\'s essay, African-American Men and Women in Higher Education: "Filling The Glass in the New Millennium," reveals that while the number of African Americans enrolling in higher education institutions and earning degrees has increased over the last two decades, they continue to lag behind among undergraduate, graduate, or professional students compared to their percentage of the traditional student-age population.

Technology–As Ernest J. Wilson, Director of the Center for Conflict Management and International Development at the University of Maryland, notes in his essay, Technological Convergence, Media Ownership and Content Diversity, while increasing numbers of Blacks are beginning to enjoy some limited access to the Internet, few people of color are actually in positions of management or control of the industry.

Business–According to the essay, The Future of Black Business in America: Can It Get Out of the Box? by professor Juliet E.K. Walker at the History Department at the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, despite having shown a steady increase in the numbers of enterprises and earnings in the past thirty years, at the end of the twentieth century Black business receipts amount to just $59.3 billion–a mere 1 percent of the nation’s total business receipts.

Economics–The real wealth of Black families in the United States increased from 1984-1999, University of Washington professor of economics William D. Bradford points out in his essay, Black Family Wealth in the United States.But, he continues, despite those improvements, economic parity with white families is not a near-term prospect. In addition, families headed by Black single females–who are raising most Black children less than 18 years old–are at the lowest end of the wealth spectrum.

Published since 1976, The State of Black America is the most scholarly annual assessment of the status of African-Americans. To receive a copy, call the League at (212)558-5438, and follow the directions.