From The Final Call Newspaper

America caught Covid-19; Black America caught hell, says Urban League

By Charlene Muhammad, National Correspondent
- August 18, 2020


People wait for a distribution of masks and food from the Rev. Al Sharpton in the Harlem neighborhood of New York, after a new state mandate was issued requiring residents to wear face coverings in public due to COVID-19, Saturday, April 18, 2020. "Inner-city residents must follow this mandate to ensure public health and safety," said Sharpton. The latest Associated Press analysis of available data shows that nearly one-third of those who have died from the coronavirus are African American, even though blacks are only about 14% of the population. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews)



True to form, the National Urban League’s 2020 State of Black America Report highlights the plight of Black inequality and economics in America. And, this year’s 44th edition focuses on the Covid-19 global pandemic, racial justice, and imperatives for Black survival.

Dr. Ala Stanford administers a COVID-19 swab test on Wade Jeffries in the parking lot of Pinn Memorial Baptist Church in Philadelphia, Wednesday, April 22, 2020. Stanford and other doctors formed the Black Doctors COVID-19 Consortium to offer testing and help address health disparities in the African American community. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

“America caught the coronavirus and Black America caught hell,” opens “Unmasked,” the benchmark report. It outlines the coronavirus’ impact particularly within the country’s economy, health care institutions, and justice systems through the lens of more than a dozen contributors.

In a bleak snapshot of race-based data compiled in partnership with the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Equity, the report indicates that Blacks, Latinos and the Indigenous are getting sick and dying in higher numbers.