Issue Policy Briefs

SUNDAY MORNING APARTHEID: A Diversity Study of the Sunday Morning Talk Shows

Concerned about the paucity of African-Americans in the media venues that help to shape public opinion and influence policy, the National Urban League Policy Institute, the research, policy and advocacy arm of the National Urban League, last year undertook an in-depth study of the guest lineups of the Sunday morning political talk shows. In July 2005, the Institute released its preliminary findings, covering the five major cable and broadcast network Sunday morning talk shows for the period between January 1, 2004 and June 30, 2005. Among other things, the study concluded that 60 percent of the Sunday morning talk shows featured no black guests at all, either as interview subjects or roundtable participants and that 78 percent of the broadcasts contained no interviews with a black guest. Read more…

Weathering the Storm: The Current State of Low-income Renters

The headlines are filled with stories of subprime mortgages and foreclosed homes during this economic crisis, but often overlooked are the impacts on the 35 million households—almost 33% of all households—who rent. Some renters will be evicted as the homes they rented are foreclosed on; this may become worse if commercial loans to apartment buildings begin to fail. In any case, the population of renters will probably increase as many households who used to own their home and are foreclosed on enter the rental market—a market that has become increasingly u Read more…

2009 State of Black America

Published since 1976, the State of Black America is the annual National Urban League report that analyzes the social and economic conditions affecting African Americans, while providing solutions to these challenges. It includes the National Urban League’s Equality Index, a statistical measurement of the disparities between blacks and whites across five categories: economics, education, health, civic engagement and social justice. The State of Black America is released each year during the Legislative Policy Conference in Washington, D.C. Read more…

2008 Annual Jobs Report

In December of 2007, the Business Cycle Dating Committee of the National Bureau of Economic Research declared that the United States economy had officially entered a recession. That diagnosis was confirmed throughout 2008 as there was a net loss of jobs every month last year—the first time there had been 12 months of consecutive net losses since 1982. The economy lost a net 3.1 million jobs in 2008, with over 50% of those losses occurring in the last quarter (October-December) of the year . November, December and January all had the highest single-month job los Read more…

Youth Violence: Implications for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in Urban Youth

Research has found that poor and minority youth are at the highest risk for exposure to violence and are the least likely to get adequate care from the mental health system, and the resulting untreated posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) can lead to poor academic outcomes, increased likelihood for criminal activity and lower employment prospects. Significant savings – both financially and in terms of lives -- can be achieved when funds are directed toward early detection and treatment of PTSD. Early detection, intervention and treatment of PTSD is also necessary and vital Read more…

The Opportunity Compact (2009)

The newly revised and updated Opportunity Compact is a set of principles and policy recommendations set forth by the National Urban League (NUL) designed to empower all Americans to be full participants in the economic and social mainstream of this nation. It is based on four cornerstones identified by the Urban League as the foundation of equal opportunity in our society: the Opportunity to Thrive (Children), the Opportunity to Earn (Jobs), the Opportunity to Own (Housing) and the Opportunity to Prosper (Entrepreneurship). These cornerstones Read more…

Early Interventions for the Achievement Gap: The Importance of Family in Early Learning

This report examines the role of family background and parental involvement in determining early learning outcomes of children in kindergarten and reveals that students who attended more structured preschool settings, like Head Start or other center-based programs, performed better on early reading and math tests. The study also suggests that to a large extent, a child’s language and literacy development are shaped within the home as opposed to in a formal school setting and are strongly influenced by the parent’s level of education and the number of siblings in the household. Read more…

The Opportunity to Earn (2008)

The economy has become the dominant issue in the 2008 presidential race, and rightly so. With foreclosures surging, consumer prices on the rise (4.9% between September 2007 and September 2008) and a loss of 760,000 jobs between January and September 2008, the future of this nation’s economy will depend largely upon the policies set in place by the next president of the United States. Though recovery of the U.S. Read more…