Bill Lee: “In many communities, housing was segregated. We passed fair housing laws. Affordable housing now is out of reach for…”

“In many communities, housing was segregated. We passed fair housing laws. Affordable housing now is out of reach for many African Americans. This administration is now gutting all of our fair housing programs, our public housing programs, our Section 8 programs. The banks, of course, did target African-American communities for these subprime scam loans. Unfortunately, any equity that had been built in the homes that we purchased after 1968 is gone. So the wealth gap is huge. It is greater than what it was probably in 1968. When you look at the number of African Americans who were unemployed in 1968, I believe it was a little over 5 percent. Now we are looking at 7 percent. When you look at the incarceration rates for the war on drugs, the marijuana laws in this country, especially in the eighties and the impacts of that, we have so many of our young African-American men incarcerated for misdemeanor and felony charges for marijuana distribution and use. We are looking at mass incarceration that has taken place since 1968 of African-American young men and women. So, yes, we have made a lot of progress. I stand here as the 100th Black Member of Congress. Mr. Evans is here. We have a Congressional Black Caucus that has increased in size. We have many, many allies in our fight.…”