The Office of Management and Budget recently revised Statistical Policy Directive No. 15: Standards for Maintaining, Collecting, and Presenting Federal Data on Race and Ethnicity (SPD 15).

Advocates expressed the need to collect data on Black Americans descended from persons enslaved in the United States. Without information on the unique status of this community, there is no way to know that data is accurate or if policy solutions are effective.

The OMB declined to implement this revision, while granting it to other populations. The Federal Interagency Technical Working Group on Race and Ethnicity Standards identified it as a priority area for future research. SIGN THE PETITION

The Color of Wealth in Miami report (2019) found that U.S.-descent Black Americans in Miami had liquid assets at a median value of just $11. This group also had the lowest median total asset value at $6,700, which is less than 6% of the median asset value of white households. Black Americans fared worse than immigrant populations who identified as black in many wealth indicators.

Prior to COVID-19, researchers who authored the "Road to Zero Wealth" report (2017) projected that median Black household wealth would reach $0 by the year 2053.

Black Americans are disproportionally represented among the unhoused. More than 50% of the nation's homeless families are classified as Black or African American. 56% of Black households are renters. Black Americans face similar disparities in Florida, especially males.

Black Americans have historically spoken out against the negative impacts of mass immigration, both legal and illegal.

Black Americans have historically been victimized by crimes motivated by racial or ethnic hatred, and continue to lead the nation in this category. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, only 230 of 758 Florida law enforcement agencies (30%) provided hate crime data in 2022.

Notably, the federal Dept. of Justice was officially created in 1870 (H.R. 1328), in large part to ensure and secure the civil rights of the Freedmen.

Freedman's Savings and Trust Company was created through an act of Congress. Black Americans deposited tens of millions into the bank. Due to government mismanagement and outright theft, it was forced to close with depositors losing their life savings. Florida branches were located in Tallahassee and Jacksonville.

The U.S. Treasury Dept. launched the Freedman's Bank Forum to showcase "efforts to increase economic opportunity for communities of color and address the persistent drivers of the racial wealth divide." However, the forum does not focus specifically on addressing the unique economic needs of descendants of Freedmen, including families of original depositors whose funds were stolen.

Researchers estimate a cumulative value of Black American land loss of about $326 billion, conservatively.

On January 16, 1970, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, a domestic policy advisor to the Richard Nixon Administration, issued a memorandum to the President that set the tone for the transition from a heightened public discourse on the unique needs of Black American citizens to a more "politically-correct" focus on social minorities in general. The practical implementation of Civil Rights Movement-era legislation reflects this shift away from policy targeted to the American Negro in favor of more generic "diversity" initiatives, which often exclude Black Americans in practice.

"The time may have come when the issue of race could benefit from a period of 'benign neglect.' The subject has been too much talked about...We may need a period in which Negro progress continues and racial rhetoric fades...Greater attention to Indians, Mexican Americans and Puerto Ricans would be useful."

The Freedmen's Bureau was established by Congress and provided a range of services to Black Americans intended to help facilitate the transition from enslavement to full citizenship and self-sufficiency. The federal agency and its branches were prematurely forced to close in 1872. Florida's field offices were located in Pensacola, Quincy, Tallahassee, Monticello, Ocala, Fernandina and Jacksonville.