olve challenges like health care； or education； or the need to find good jobs for every American。
Understanding this reality requires a reminder of how we arrived at this point。 As William Faulkner once wrote； 〃The past isn't dead and buried。 In fact； it isn't even past。〃 We do not need to recite here the history of racial injustice in this country。 But we do need to remind ourselves that so many of the disparities that exist in the African…American munity today can be directly traced to inequalities passed on from an earlier generation that suffered under the brutal legacy of slavery and Jim Crow。
Segregated schools were； and are； inferior schools； we still haven't fixed them； fifty years after Brown v。 Board of Education； and the inferior education they provided； then and now； helps explain the pervasive achievement gap between today's black and white students。
Legalized discrimination … where blacks were prevented； often through violence； from owning property； or loans were not granted to African…American business owners； or black homeowners could not access FHA mortgages； or blacks were excluded from unions； or the police force； or fire departments … meant that black families could not amass any meaningful wealth to bequeath to future generations。 That history helps explain the wealth and ine gap between black and white； and the concentrated pockets of poverty that persists in so many of today's urban and rural munities。
A lack of economic oppo