Treasury's Yellen sees 'much more work' ahead to narrow racial wealth divide

[January 17, 2022]  By Andrea Shalal

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Treasury took key steps over the past year to address longstanding economic injustices facing Americans of color, but still has "much more work" ahead to narrow the racial wealth divide, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said on Monday.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen speaks during a virtual roundtable with participants from local Black Chambers Of Commerce from across the country to discuss the American Rescue Plan at the White House in Washington, U.S., February 5, 2021. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

Yellen told a meeting hosted by Rev. Al Sharpton and his National Action Network rights group that Treasury was working to right economic wrongs called out by slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr in his "I Have a Dream" speech in 1963.

"He knew that economic injustice was bound up in the larger injustice he fought against. From Reconstruction, to Jim Crow, to the present day, our economy has never worked fairly for Black Americans – or, really, for any American of color," Yellen said told a breakfast in King's honor.

Jim Crow refers to laws put in place in Southern states in the decades after the 1861-65 U.S. Civil War to legalize racial segregation and disenfranchise Black citizens.

Over the past year, she said, Treasury completed its first equity review, hired its most diverse leadership team ever, and named its first counselor on racial equity while building a COVID-19 rescue plan to better serve communities of color.

In addition, Treasury also pumped $9 billion dollars into Community Development Financial Institutions and Minority Depository Institutions, while trying to get corporations more engaged in those institutions and underserved communities.

"Of course, no one program and no one administration can make good on the hopes and aspirations that Dr. King had for our country," Yellen said. "There is still much more work Treasury needs to do to narrow the racial wealth divide."

Federal Reserve data show white households owned 85.5% of the wealth of the United States in 2019, although they comprise 60% of the population, while Black households owned 4.2% and Latino households owned 3.1%. Those numbers are little changed from 30 years ago, according to USAFacts.org, a non-partisan non-profit organization.

(Reporting by Andrea Shalal; Editing by Nick Zieminski)

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