Blacks in Kansas City remain far behind whites in ‘equality index,’ report says

Black people in Kansas City are only 72 percent as well off as whites, according to a new report from the Urban League of Greater Kansas City.

That’s a slide from just five years ago, when the “equality index” was 74 percent, the league found.

The 2015 report, released Thursday, notes progress: Kansas City voters have elected two black mayors and the chief of police is African-American.

“Yet our efforts to close longstanding economic gaps have stalled,” according to the executive summary of the report. “Disparities in health, education and social justice persist, nationally and locally.”

For the first time, the report also has a Hispanic equality index. It found that Hispanics are 75.8 percent as well off as non-Hispanic whites.

In economics, the Urban League found that the situation for blacks has improved slightly since 2010, from 53 percent to 57 percent, in comparison to whites. Black median household income is $29,724, compared with $54,044 for whites.

Median net worth for blacks is less than 6 percent that of whites, $6,314 to $110,500.

The equality index for health was relatively unchanged from 2010. The percentage of blacks without health insurance is roughly twice that of whites, the report found, and the fetal death rate for blacks is more than double that of whites.

In the realm of education, the report found the average composite ACT score for blacks is 14.5, while the score for whites is 22.8.

“Poor black children are trapped in low-performing inner-city schools,” the executive summary states.

The report found that in terms of health, Hispanics are better off than non-Hispanic whites.

“The Hispanic death rate is much better than the death rate for non-Hispanic whites, with an index value of 135 percent,” the summary said, “and the Hispanic life expectancy at birth of 82 years is better than the life expectancy at birth of 79 years for non-Hispanic whites.”

This story was originally published February 12, 2015 at 5:33 PM with the headline "Blacks in Kansas City remain far behind whites in ‘equality index,’ report says."