New Orleans is still a majority Black city.
For now.
That's changing.
In 1980, New Orleans was 55% Black.
In 2000, New Orleans was 67% Black.
The percentage of Black people living in New Orleans grew in each decade from 1920 until 2000.
The number of Black people in New Orleans hasn't been the same since Hurricane Katrina nearly 20 years ago.
One thing remains unchanged: Black median household income remains well below that of White median household income, according to the Data Center, an independent research organization that tracks key indicators across southeast Louisiana.
In late June, this newspaper's Desiree Stennett reported on the center's most recent findings and provided some context about what it might take to close this wealth gap. The center's analysis included Orleans, Jefferson, Plaquemines, St. Bernard, St. Charles, St. James, St. John and St. Tammany parishes with the U.S. Census Bureau data available at the time. It's the first time the center has examined estimates of Greater New Orleans household wealth.
If you're Black, things don't look good.
"Researchers at the Data Center found that though a wealth disparity between Black and White households is present nationwide, it is more acute in the New Orleans area's eight parishes," Stennett wrote. "Across the U.S., the typical White household has about six times the wealth of the average Black family. But in the New Orleans area, White families hold about 13 times the wealth of Black families, the study found in a first-of-its-kind analysis that looked at local wealth and national trends."
There's more.
The center released an update Thursday, using Census Bureau data released earlier this month. The center noted that the official New Orleans metro area will shrink from an eight-parish region to a seven-parish region, excluding St. Tammany Parish. The new region's data will be reported by the bureau later this year.
The Data Center has provided an analysis of the eight-parish region in southern Louisiana, including data about New Orleans' declining Black population and a disturbing Black-White median household income gap.
Meanwhile, what's striking are the Black population changes and the Black-White median household income gaps.
According to the Data Center's latest analysis, the Orleans Parish Black population dropped from 59% in 2020 to 57% in 2021.
The two-percentage point drop may not seem like a big deal, but for a Black city that prides itself on its entertainment, food, music and culture, I can't imagine New Orleans following Washington, D.C., the most prominent chocolate city in recent decades.
Washington was the nation's chocolate city when the district's Black population as about 71% in 1970. By 2009, Washington's Black population had fallen to 53 %.
In the mid-1970s, when I was in college and made some time for "studying" in the district, local D.C. deejays popularized the chocolate city phrase. George Clinton and Parliament took it national with "Chocolate City," a song that shared praise for cities that had become chocolate.
Eric Waters shot "Oliver "Squirk" Hunter, La Nouvelle-Orleans" doing a remarkable leap twice, in 1993 and 2012. The combo photograph work is part of a special Black photography exhibit at the Ashe' Cultural Arts Center in New Orleans, open through June 3, 2023.
Washington, Atlanta, Gary, Los Angeles and New York City were in the song. New Orleans was not. Clinton imagined how chocolate cities might lead to Blacks in the White House: Muhammad Ali, president. Aretha Franklin, first lady. James Brown, vice president. Richard Pryor, minister of education. Stevie Wonder, secretary of fine arts.
We're a long way from seeing that happen.
But there was President Barack Obama, and there's Vice President Kamala Harris.
Clinton was dreaming, creating a vision of what might be. His assumption: Things would be better for us.
Former New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin sparked a national controversy — and gave some a reason for pride — when he called New Orleans a "chocolate city" in a 2006 Martin Luther King Day speech.
If only being chocolate meant Black New Orleanians were better off.
The Data Center report shows that the median White household income in New Orleans was $59,767 in 1979. The median White household income rose to $91,148 by 2022.
Now, some shocking context: Data Center research shows that the median Black household income was $33,884 in 1979. By 2022, that number rose to ... $34,552.
In 1979, the Black-White median household gap was more than $25,000.
In 2022, that gap was more than $56,000.
Our Black population is declining. Our median household wealth gap is increasing.
In the center's June report, researchers Robert Habans and Haleigh Tomlin said local Black households "disproportionately lack financial resources to grow businesses; to weather shocks from recessions, health care expenses, disasters, or unexpected job losses; to transfer economic and financial success across generations; to reap compounded returns on investment; and to reinvest their capital in under-resourced communities."
We have the data. We see the trends.
If we want this to change, we can make it change with state and local leaders who understand that this gap is not acceptable.
I love New Orleans' recognition as a chocolate city.
But I hope the city sees stronger economic and financial prosperity for Black families before our population dips closer to 50%.
