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THE NEED FOR ACTION

America enters the new millennium with a prosperous swagger but a hollow sense of community. Welfare is down. So, too, is unemployment and crime. But look beyond the good-news statistics and headlines. Look into our segregated schools, our red-lined inner cities, our harassed and exploited immigrant enclaves. Look at the circles of power, still with too few faces of color and too few women. While the Census Bureau Mid-Range Population Projections predict that on July 1, 2010, minorities will comprise 32.7% of the U.S. population, an increase from 27.5% on July 1, 1999, racial inequality and discrimination continue to be major problems in our nation. Indeed, the challenge to build One America continues. For additional information see Bar None.

• 44% of all African-American children and 42% of all Latino children under the age of six live in poverty.
  
  

• 75% of Latino students and 70% of African-American students today attend predominantly separate minority schools.
  
  

• Asian Pacific Americans, a diverse community with a large immigrant population, face racial and ethnic barriers to education, health services and the justice system.
  
  

• Critical issues facing Native Americans such as illegal dumping on Indian lands and discrimination in non-Indian courts go unnoticed because Native Americans make up less than 1% of the U.S. population.
  
  

• Rates of residential segregation in the Detroit metropolitan area are higher today than in 1960.
  
  

• The FBI reports that 59% of all hate crimes in the United States are racially motivated.
  
  

• In California and Texas public law schools, African-American admissions dropped 80%, and Hispanic admissions dropped 50% in 1997.
  
  

• 10% of the nation's 250 largest law firms report employing at most one minority lawyer.
  
  

• Only 2% of the partners in America's largest law firms are minorities.
  
  

• African Americans have the highest infant mortality rate of all American ethnic groups-16.8 deaths per 1,000 births, compared to 6.8% for white infants.
  
  

• In Illinois, Latinos comprise less than 8% of the population and comprise 27% of those in automobiles stopped and searched by the police. In Maryland, 80.3% of the drivers stopped and searched by the police are members of minorities as compared to 19.7% for whites.
  
  

• In New York City's 77 largest firms there are 4,400 partners, only 34 are African American (0.773%). In Chicago's 40 largest firms there are 2,990 parnters, only 46 are African American (1.54%). Of the 2,000 partners in Washington, D.C. firms, only 35 are African American (1.75%).
  
  

• 6% of African American partners in the 250 largest firms are non-equity partners as compared to 30% of white partners.
  
  

• Asian Pacific Americans account for 1% of partners at major law firms, less than 1% of law schools faculty and only 7 of 748 (0.94%) Federal Judges. In 1998 Asian Pacific Americans comprised 4% of the US population, 6% of associates in law firms and 6% of law students.
  
  

• In the Fortune 500 companies there are only 14 minority General Counsel, and 11 of them were named in the last 4 years.
  
  

• In 1998 the average earnings for those without a high school diploma was $16,124. In 1998 only 55.5% of people of Hispanic origin, and 76.0% of African Americans held a high school diploma or higher.
  
  

• In 1998 the average earning for those with only a bachelor's degree was $40,478. In 1998 only 11.0% of people of Hispanic origin, and 14.7% of African Americans held a bachelor's degree or higher.
  
  

• The American Association of Law Schools reports that for the year 1998-1999, of the 178 law school deans of member schools, only 9.0% are minorities.
  

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