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New Orleans, Hurricane Katrina

Source: Mario Tama / Getty

Blacks in post-Hurricane Katrina New Orleans have made some educational progress, but the median income has not risen as much as that of White households, reports NOLA.

The Urban League of Greater New Orleans and the National Urban League announced the findings Friday at the Essence Festival, where the group discussed New Orleans’ shifting demographics and promoted its “RISE: Katrina 10” conference occurring in late August, the report says.

African-Americans make up 59 percent, or the majority of the city’s population, but only 48 percent of that population is gainfully employed, the report says.

The number of Black children living in poverty rose to 50.5 percent in 2013, up from 44 percent in 2005, and Marc Morial, CEO of the National Urban League and former New Orleans mayor, offered “raising the floor on the minimum wage” to help working families.

Via NOLA:

The median income gap between black and white households in New Orleans has widened by 18 percent from 2005 to 2013, according to the Urban League report. That’s because the median white household in New Orleans increased from $49,262 to $60,553, while the mean African population only rose from $23,394 to $25,102, their analysis showed…

Among the positive post-K trends documented by the Urban League study, the high school graduation rate among New Orleans black public school students has risen from 56 percent in the 2004-05 school year to about 73 percent in 2013-14.

New Orleans has not made a corresponding gain in the number of black men holding bachelor’s degrees or higher, however. A smaller percentage of African-American New Orleans men hold bachelors degrees now than before the storm – 13.7 percent in 2013 compared to 16.6 percent in 2005, according to the Urban League report. More African-American New Orleans women hold bachelor’s degrees or higher: 21 percent in 2013 compared to 19 percent in 2005.

Click here to read the Urban League’s complete report on the state of New Orleans’ Black community since Katrina, and to get details on the “RISE: Katrina 10” conference.

SOURCE: NOLA | PHOTO CREDIT: Getty

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