An In-Depth Look at “The Covenant with Black America: Ten Years Later”

This week, we bring you a special podcast to coincide with the release of “The Covenant with Black America: Ten Years Later,” which updates the 2006 bestseller that laid out a national plan of action to address the 10 most crucial issues facing African Americans. With fresh data provided by the Indiana University School of Public and Environmental Affairs (SPEA), the updated text explores why Black America still faces crippling inequality.

On this podcast, we discuss five pressing issues:

Health: Joining us to discuss the causes and potential solutions for disparities in health care are lawyer and environmental activist Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., and Prof. Keith Wailoo of Princeton University, whose groundbreaking research on sickle-cell anemia and the politics of race and health changed the way we view that disease. 

Reclaiming Our Democracy: With us to explore the issues preventing African Americans from fully benefiting from our democracy are Alicia Garza, co-founder of Black Lives Matter, and Rashad Robinson, executive director of ColorofChange.org, the nation's largest online civil rights organization.

Education and the Economy: We explore the links between education and economic achievement with Russlynn Ali, a former Assistant Secretary of Education for Civil Rights in the Obama Administration and now CEO of the XQ Institute, which strives to reimagine America's schools, and economist Dr. Julianne Malveaux, president emerita of Bennett College.

Environment: Joining us to look at the impact of environmental abuse on low-income communities are consumer advocate Erin Brockovich and actor Wendell Pierce, best known for his roles on HBO’s “The Wire” and “Treme,” and author of the book, “The Wind in the Reeds: A Storm, A Play, and the City That Would Not Be Broken.”

Justice: We look at the fraught relationship between African Americans and the justice system with Khalil Gibran Muhammad, director of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture and soon to join the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University as a professor of history, race and public policy, and Los Angeles attorney Connie Rice, co-director of the Advancement Project, a multiracial civil rights organization.