chances

WASHINGTON — The American Dream may not be dead for many Black Americans, but it is further away than at any point since the Civil Rights Movement, warns a report by the National Urban League.

Released on Thursday, the annual “State of Black America” report grimly describes Black Americans ‘ economic and political prospects as having worsened due to policy changes from President Trump’s administration, according to a copy obtained by the Associated Press.

The report contends that the challenges it highlights for Black communities are warning signs for the prosperity of all Americans.

“It may be the focus is us, but the impact is not just us,” said Marc Morial, president and CEO of the National Urban League. “While they have targeted and focused on Black Americans, these attacks are going to impact broadly working Americans, poor Americans, aspirational middle-class Americans, and this is what this report points to.”

Tracing the arc of American history, the Urban League describes Black Americans’ struggle for emancipation from slavery and equal economic and political rights as a gruesome but optimistic part of the American story.

Now, the report says, the Trump administration is at odds with the goals and achievements of the Civil Rights Movement, citing the overhaul of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, as well as the president’s focus on overhauling voting laws through the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, as examples of rollbacks of long-sought civil rights policies.

The report’s authors offer policy and strategy recommendations for civil rights groups aiming to combat the Trump administration.

“The civil rights community must consolidate its legal resistance and turn courtroom wins into durable policy,” the report says. “The movement must build economic infrastructure that doesn’t depend on the goodwill of any one administration.”

The AP reached out to the White House for comment on the report.

Report contributors include a potential Democratic presidential contender

This year’s report includes contributions from members of Congress, and policy and legal experts, as well as some media personalities.

U.S. Senators Angela Alsobrooks, Lisa Blunt Rochester and Raphael Warnock all contributed to the report, as well as Maryland Gov. Wes Moore and Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey contributed a video message to the report.

Moore, who is widely viewed as a potential 2028 presidential contender, submitted an essay focused on closing the racial wealth gap and Black Americans’ history of economic advancement in the face of adversity.

“With wisdom and grit, my mom was able to lift me and my family to a higher rung on the economic ladder. But too often wisdom and grit aren’t enough,” Moore wrote.

He later called closing the racial wealth gap “a matter of moral clarity” but cautioned that “government alone cannot close the racial wealth gap. It’s going to take all of us,” referencing the private sector and civil society.

Report blasts ‘economic assault’ on Black Americans

Whether corporate America and major nonprofits are still willing to participate is an open question. The report condemns the Trump administration’s efforts to roll back diversity initiatives and economic advancement projects in the private sector, and expresses frustration with companies that cooperated with an “economic assault” on Americans, especially Black Americans.

“This has been a campaign of coercion and oppression directed at these institutions who have been out here working hard to, if you will, change America,” Morial said. “The important thing about companies is that every company has not bent the knee. Some may have done some cosmetic changes. Some have been in full and complete retreat.”

The DEI rollbacks are a jarring reversal for the Urban League, which held sway in the Biden White House on economic and social policies. The report lauds President Biden’s administration for signing a sweeping COVID-19 stimulus package, as well as laws supporting minority small businesses and a bipartisan infrastructure bill.

“Not every promise was kept, and the current administration is pushing to roll our wins back, but these wins serve as a blueprint for what is possible through sustained advocacy and a clear vision,” the authors write. The agenda, the Urban League declares, was “the most consequential federal investments in Black America since the Great Society.”

The organization and its civil rights allies now find themselves in a strikingly different political environment under the Trump administration.

“Looking at our current political landscape, the calls for racial healing and righting of this nation’s wrongs in the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd feel like a fever dream,” the report reads.

But the study also acknowledges that Black Americans have overcome more dire and discriminatory moments.

Latest Black America report is the Urban League’s 50th edition

The Urban League’s inaugural 1976 report on the state of Black America was described by the New York Times at the time as “a profoundly depressing document” that laid out the persistent disparities between the economic outlooks of Black and white Americans, a decade after the Civil Rights Movement’s crowning achievements were signed into law.

The report was established as a response to that year’s State of the Union address by President Ford and the Democratic response, neither of which mentioned the economic outlooks for Black Americans. The report offered policy recommendations on crime, education, housing, social services and general economic policy.

“It is a document that does not attempt to cover up the seriousness of the situation black people find themselves in,” the authors wrote at the time. Several of its recommendations were later taken up by President Carter, who was elected to the White House months after the report’s release.

This year’s 50th anniversary document echoes the frustration found in the inaugural report. While Morial acknowledged that the Urban League’s assessments may lead to pessimism, he urged Americans concerned about civil rights and economic progress to respond at the ballot box and with their pocketbooks.

“We cannot be dejected. We cannot be cynical. We must act,” Morial said. “We have to fight to make sure that those that are really trying to kill the essence of the American dream don’t win.”

Brown writes for the Associated Press.

“The Pitt” has put “ER” veteran Noah Wyle back where he excels: a fictional emergency room. But this time, Wyle has assumed far more control over the Emmy chaos by producing and directing as well as acting.

2

In 2025, Wyle won the lead drama actor Emmy for playing complicated miracle worker Dr. Michael “Robby” Robinavitch, plus a producing prize for drama series.

5

Wyle was nominated five times (1995-1999) without winning for his supporting performance as Dr. John Carter on “ER,” his first hospital-set collaboration with producer John Wells.

29

Nominations that “ER” actors Wyle, Julianna Margulies, Anthony Edwards, Sherry Stringfield, Eriq La Salle, George Clooney, Laura Innes, Gloria Reuben, CCH Pounder and Maura Tierney amassed in supporting and lead categories.

1

Emmy wins that resulted from those nominations: Margulies’ supporting triumph in 1995.

200%

“The Pitt” doubled that haul in one season, with Wyle’s lead and Katherine LaNasa’s supporting wins. (And added a guest actor Emmy for Shawn Hatosy, who moves up to supporting in Season 2.)

3

Wyle could grab three more nominations this time around, including for his “Pitt” directing debut (Season 2, Episode 6).

8

He also no longer competes against his co-stars, as he did with La Salle, and as at least eight “Pitt” performers (LaNasa, Taylor Dearden, Fiona Dourif, Sepideh Moafi, Isa Briones, Patrick Ball, Gerran Howell and Hatosy) could this year.

If Scotland lose and finish with three points, there are a number of results they will need to look out for – they will want as many groups as possible with two teams finishing on fewer than three points.

In Group A, if Mexico beat the Czech Republic and South Korea beat South Africa, that would leave the team in third on one point.

The next best scenario would be a big South Africa win to leave South Korea in third with three points and a poor goal difference.

Wins for South Africa and the Czech Republic would spell bad news for Scotland, leaving the third-place finisher on four points.

One of the few games that take place before Scotland face Brazil that has a bearing on where Scotland could finish comes in Group B.

Bosnia-Herzegovina and Qatar meet three hours before Scotland play and, if they draw, both sides will have two points.

In Group D, Australia and Paraguay are second and third respectively and meet in their final game. The losers would end the group with three points, while a draw would leave both sides on four.

On we go to Group E. Ecuador and Curacao have one point apiece and play Germany and Ivory Coast respectively. Failure to win would mean whoever finishes third cannot better Scotland’s tally of three points.

In Group F, Scotland will be hoping second-placed Japan beat third-placed Sweden convincingly. A point for Sweden, though, would leave the third-placed finishers on at least four points.

The key fixture in Group G as far as Scotland are concerned is Egypt v Iran. A win for Egypt will ensure the team finishing third will have fewer than three points.

It is the same situation in Group H where Scotland fans will be rooting for Spain to beat Uruguay so the third-placed team can only finish on two points, while in Group I, a draw between Senegal and Iraq would mean the team in third will have just one point.

In Group J, Austria and Algeria – second and third respectively on three points – meet in their final group game, so Scotland would not want that to end in a draw.

DR Congo and Uzbekistan are vying for third place in Group K.

A win for Uzbekistan would give them three points but, with a goal difference of -7, they would need a big win against DR Congo and for Scotland to lose badly to move above them in the standings.

In Group L, a point or more for Croatia against Ghana could be bad news for Scotland as it would again leave the third-place finishers with four points.

A big win for Ghana, and Panama not beating England, would be Scotland’s ideal scenario from a mathematical point of view.

Claire Danes’ performance in Netflix’s “The Beast in Me” appears like a lock for an Emmy nomination for lead actress in a limited series or TV movie. In typical fashion, Danes left it on all the floor in portraying a reclusive author who suspects her developer neighbor (Matthew Rhys) of misdeeds.

1995

The Golden Globes rarely get it as right as they did in awarding Danes the drama series best actress award, at 15, for ABC’s “My So-Called Life.”

19

The lifespan of the authentic teen drama that introduced viewers to Danes’ unique emotional translucence, counted in episodes.

1st

Danes also received an Emmy nomination for the series — the first of eight for acting so far.

16

She is the second-youngest Emmy nominee ever for lead actress in a drama series, between Melissa Sue Anderson (15, for “Little House on the Prairie”) and Kristy McNichol (17, for “Family”).

3

Danes won an Emmy for playing the real-life animal science professor in the HBO movie “Temple Grandin,” and two for playing complex CIA officer Carrie Mathison on Showtime’s “Homeland.”

31

Span of years between Danes’ first and 2026 nominations, if she receives one.

47

Danes’ Emmy longevity may not equal the likes of Carol Burnett, nominated in 2024 for “Palm Royale” 62 years after her first, but it’s mighty impressive for someone Danes’ age.

49

There’s even a contender in her category this year whose span between nominations would be longer than Danes’ lifetime: Sally Field, who appears in Netflix’s TV movie “Remarkably Bright Creatures.”

Jason Bateman could snag limited series Emmy nominations for his lead role as a deep-in-debt barman on Netflix’s “Black Rabbit” and supporting role as a sexually adventurous weatherman on HBO’s “DTF St. Louis.” Drawing more than one nomination in a year has been the norm for Bateman.

14

Bateman’s previous Emmy nominations encompass acting, directing and producing.

1

His lone Emmy win came in 2019, for directing an episode of his Netflix crime drama “Ozark.”

21

The former child actor’s first nomination, as lead of the Fox (later Netflix) comedy “Arrested Development,” came in 2005. Bateman’s adult “comeback” has lasted 21 years and counting.

4

Times he has received multiple nominations in a year, most often for acting in, directing and producing “Ozark.”

2

“Black Rabbit” and “DTF St. Louis” would mark his second time receiving acting nominations for different shows in the same year.

2020

Bateman competed for drama lead for “Ozark” and guest actor for HBO’s “The Outsider.”

0-for-7

Bateman is overdue for an acting Emmy. His brilliant straight-man work in “Arrested Development” lost out to Emmy juggernauts Tony Shalhoub (“Monk”) in 2005 and Jim Parsons (“The Big Bang Theory”) in 2013.

3-for-13

The Actor Awards have been kinder: Bateman won three lead actor statuettes for “Ozark.”

2026

The guilds already have spoken on “Black Rabbit,” with Bateman receiving Actor, DGA and PGA nominations.

5

Also a producer on “DTF St. Louis,” Bateman has a shot at five Emmy nominations this year.