PETERSBURG, Va. — A new research brief from Virginia State University finds that Black men and boys in the United States continue to face interconnected economic disadvantages in education, employment, earnings and household wealth, with some indicators showing stagnation or recent decline.
The July 2026 report, “The Economic State of Black Men and Boys in the United States,” is the first in an annual series from the John Mercer Langston Institute for African American Political Leadership, led by Executive Director Wes Bellamy, an associate professor of political science and public administration. Produced with the Virginia Alliance for Black Men and Boys, it draws on federal data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Census Bureau and National Center for Education Statistics, supplemented by community engagement.
Approximately 22.7 million Black men and boys live in the United States. The brief stresses the need to disaggregate data rather than rely on averages for Black Americans overall, arguing that specific outcomes for men and boys can otherwise remain hidden.
Key findings include a Black unemployment rate of 6.6% in June 2026 — the highest among the four major racial and ethnic groups tracked in monthly Bureau of Labor Statistics summaries — compared with a national rate of 4.2%. Black men’s median weekly earnings for full-time work stood at $1,039, or about 77 cents for every dollar earned by White men. Black men accounted for 26% of enrollment at historically Black colleges and universities in 2022, down from 38% in 1976, following a roughly 25% enrollment drop from 2010 to 2022.
Households with a Black householder had a median transaction-account balance of $2,200 and a homeownership rate of 43%, versus 73% for White households.
Reading proficiency remains low: 17% of Black fourth-graders scored at or above the proficient level on the 2024 National Assessment of Educational Progress. The report also notes elevated downward mobility for Black boys raised in higher-income families relative to White peers and a recent decline in Black men’s employment-to-population ratio not matched by other major race-by-gender groups.
Bellamy’s brief frames these patterns as measurable and interconnected, without claiming formal causation for every link. It recommends six priorities, including treating Black male college enrollment and persistence as institutional responsibilities with public metrics, strengthening early literacy instruction and high-dosage tutoring, expanding mentorship and career supports, targeting services to the long-term unemployed, and mobilizing state, local and community action.
“Nobody is coming to save us,” the report states, positioning the data as a scorecard for accountability rather than a call for despair. Subsequent annual editions will track progress on the same indicators.
Read the full report at : https://www.vsu.edu/files/docs/history/economic-state-of-black-men-and-boys.pdf.
