Texas ranks No. 1 in racial progress: Report

A new report has found that Texas, Wyoming and Mississippi have made the most progress in achieving racial equality since the Civil Rights Movement, while the District of Columbia, Iowa and Vermont have made the least progress.

The report, from WalletHub, compared the 50 states’ and the District of Columbia’s progress on employment and wealth, education, social and civic engagement and health.

The racial wealth gap between Black and white households stems from unequal labor income, disparate housing equity and student loan debt, Alyasah Sewell, an associate professor of sociology at Emory University, said in the report.

“These disparities are rooted in historical injustices and continue to shape present-day wealth inequality in distinct ways,” said Sewell. 

“Together, they limit opportunities to build financial security, invest in wealth-generating assets, and achieve economic mobility. While the racial income gap is smaller than the wealth gap, persistent income inequality and the growing divide between the highest and lowest earners have exacerbated racial disparities in net worth. These inequalities compound over time—across individuals’ lifetimes, between generations, and throughout history—creating structural barriers that widen the wealth gap further.”

Wyoming, the report found, ranks number one in the nation for reducing the earnings gap between white and Black Americans. Since 1979, Wyoming has reduced the earnings gap by 42 percentage points.

But it was Texas that was found to have had the most racial progress, in part because of its work to close the gap in health outcomes between white and Black residents.

Since 1995, the Lone Star State has reduced the gap in health insurance coverage by more than 12 percentage points. The state ranks number one in decreasing the number of Black residents suffering from poor health and diabetes and second in obesity.

Mississippi has made progress in reducing the poverty rate gap between white and Black Americans, but stands out in improving voter participation. From 1980 to 2020, Mississippi shrank the voter participation gap by 15 percentage points between white and Black residents.

While the nation’s capital ranks toward the bottom of the list for racial progress, it has the lowest homeownership gap. North Dakota has the largest homeownership gap.

Edlin Veras, assistant professor of sociology and Black studies at Swarthmore College, said the reasons for homeownership disparities are multifaceted. 

“This is not only an issue of race, but also class. Gentrification is rapidly pricing working class Black families out of neighborhoods. In some cities, investors and other business ventures make it impossible for long-standing and historically diverse communities to remain in place–they simply cannot afford to live in or to keep up with the swiftly changing markets,” said Veras. 

“Beyond affordability, research has also consistently shown racial biases by realtors and banks including but not limited to: showing, appraising, and financing homes such that Black families receive unfavorable outcomes across all three.”

But the differences in progress have much to do with the culture of each state, according to Kim Scipes, professor emeritus of sociology at Purdue University Northwest. 

Scipes said the nation still hasn’t dealt with its past, particularly around slavery and African Americans, and states that have largely kept Black Americans and people of color out of power have been most reluctant to change. 

“These states are generally white, rural states without big cities to overcome this conservativeness,” said Scipes. “It's where there have been large concentrations of African Americans, and increasingly Latinos and/or Asians, where change has taken place; places like Nevada and Arizona: folks who live with each other generally are willing to trust those they know more than those who don’t live together.”