The New York Times is running on Monday's front page a long story focusing on the decline of African-American wealth in Memphis, a piece that dovetails well with Wendi C. Thomas' Sunday Viewpoint essay on the wealth gap afflicting black women.
Most of what the Times story covers will be familiar to Memphians; the story goes in depth into the lawsuit by Memphis and Shelby County against Wells Fargo, which they accuse of marketing toxic loans to black home buyers. And the Times story repeats one fact that Wendi mentioned in her Sunday piece: that for every dollar of wealth a white family has, a black family has only 16 cents. However, there was one particularly striking statistic that I had not seen reported around here:
Most of what the Times story covers will be familiar to Memphians; the story goes in depth into the lawsuit by Memphis and Shelby County against Wells Fargo, which they accuse of marketing toxic loans to black home buyers. And the Times story repeats one fact that Wendi mentioned in her Sunday piece: that for every dollar of wealth a white family has, a black family has only 16 cents. However, there was one particularly striking statistic that I had not seen reported around here:
The median income of black homeowners in Memphis rose steadily until five or six years ago. Now it has receded to a level below that of 1990 -- and roughly half that of white Memphis homeowners, according to an analysis conducted by Queens College Sociology Department for The New York Times.
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