Black History Is Economic History: A Charge Toward Black Futures

Nearly 250 years into the American experiment, the pursuit of liberty remains inseparable from the pursuit of wealth, and Black communities continue to face an economy that excludes them from both. The language of democracy is everywhere but often serves as a civic veneer over a deeper national project: the protection of racialized capitalism. This economic order, built on genocide and slavery, fortified through extraction and exclusion, and sustained by policies designed to preserve wealth for some while denying it to others, resulted in the racial wealth divide.

Black history in the United States is not separate from economic history; in fact, it is central to it. And any serious conversation about the future of democracy in this country must begin with a clear accounting of how wealth has been structured and the power it confers. Honoring Black history is not simply about commemorating triumphs. To understand the challenges of the present moment—and what it will take to build durable Black futures—we must be clear-eyed about the economic architecture that produced today’s inequities.

Prosperity in the United States Was Engineered Through Racial Extraction

For over 400 years, the Atlantic slave trade served as the principal engine of wealth across Europe and the United States. By 1860, the market value of nearly 4 million enslaved people was conservatively estimated at more than $3 billion—the equivalent of $42 trillion today (based on conservative estimates—some scholars argue much higher economic equivalents)—making slavery one of the nation’s largest capital assets.

Slavery fueled US prosperity. Nowhere was this extraction more concentrated than in the South. By the start of the Civil War, the South produced 77 percent of the cotton used in Britain, 90 percent used in France, 92 percent used in Russia, and generated more millionaires per capita in the Mississippi River Valley than anywhere else in the country. The United States was the world’s major cotton exporter for 134 years, from 1803 to 1937. This is the foundation of US economic power: Black labor creating wealth that Black people were never allowed to hold. The implications are not historical footnotes. They reveal that US economic prosperity was not merely accompanied by racial oppression—it was built on its back.

Oppression Evolved but the Wealth Divide Endured

Emancipation did not dismantle the racial economy. Instead, new systems emerged—Reconstruction backlash, Jim Crow segregation, redlining, mass incarceration, labor market stratification, and disparate generational asset transfers of inherited wealth—that have maintained unequal access to wealth. These mechanisms have functioned less as isolated injustices and more as interlocking economic sanctions. Over generations, they have shaped who could own property, accumulate assets, benefit from public investments, and pass wealth forward. These policies of economic entrapment ensured Black communities remained essential to the economy but excluded from its rewards.

The result is a persistent racial wealth divide that remains one of the most durable indicators of inequality in the United States. Recent data underscores the structural nature of this divide. Median wealth for Black households stands at $44,890, continuing to lag significantly behind other groups. While Black wealth increased by 66 percent between 2019 and 2022, the Black-White median wealth gap now exceeds $240,000—the largest dollar gap since such data has been collected. The divide is especially pronounced in the South, home to 56 percent of the Black population. About two million Black households in the region have zero or negative net worth. In some Southern states, White households hold on average 24 times more wealth than Black households. These figures are not the result of individual financial behavior; they are the outcome of systems that distribute opportunity unevenly.

Economic Volatility Raises the Stakes

The Black-White median wealth gap now exceeds 240,000—the largest dollar gap since such data has been collected. 

Compounding these structural inequities are macroeconomic shifts. The US dollar continues to weaken. Last year, the dollar index fell nearly 10 percent, and analysts project an additional 4 to 5 percent decline as growth prospects outside the United States improve. Periods of volatility tend to exacerbate inequality. Economic instability does not strike evenly. Communities with fewer assets, limited liquidity, and constrained access to capital are the first to absorb economic shocks—and the last to benefit from recoveries.

These market realities raise new questions. Black history teaches us that survival is not enough. We must build.

Toward Black Futures: Three Strategic Imperatives

Honoring Black history must involve more than commemoration. It requires investing in the economic conditions for self-determination and long-term stability. The following priorities represent actionable pathways for systems-level change. This requires action rooted in economic strategy, collective agency, and global imagination.

1. Expand value-based investment and business ownership

Black-owned businesses generate more than $200 billion annually and support over 3.5 million jobs (employer and non-employer firms).  Yet the primary constraint is not innovation—is investment. If Black entrepreneurs had equitable access to investments 20 years ago, projections estimate an additional $16 trillion could have been added to US GDP.  Increasing investments by supporting ownership pathways, patient capital, and industry diversification could ensure Black enterprises are positioned not just in legacy sectors but in the industries shaping the future of the country’s economy.

2. Build a civil society infrastructure for economic justice

Despite the scale of need, organizations primarily serving Black communities received $3.3 billion in donations in 2022—just 0.61 percent of charitable giving. Geographically, the South receives less than 3 percent of philanthropic dollars nationwide, even as its population and economic influence grow. Addressing this imbalance requires a coordinated investments infrastructure that connects economic justice, democracy, and long-term capital formation—moving beyond episodic giving toward sustained investment ecosystems.

3. Engage the global African diaspora as an economic future

The African diaspora includes more than 200 million people outside the continent and 1.4 billion people within it, representing a rapidly expanding share of the global population. Many of the world’s fastest-growing economies in the coming decades are expected to be in Africa, particularly sub-Saharan Africa. Future-oriented strategies for Black prosperity must therefore be global, diasporic, and economically networked—connecting regional wealth-building in the US South to broader currents of opportunity.

A Future Beyond Extraction

Building Black futures requires moving beyond resilience narratives toward structural investments and long-term economic power.

We can build durable economic ecosystems where prosperity is rooted, shared, and self-determined. The next chapter of democracy depends on whether wealth—and the power it confers—becomes more broadly accessible. We are the descendants of people who created vast wealth they could not possess.

Now, we are called to build systems where prosperity is not stolen, delayed, or denied. Black history demands more than remembrance. It demands a future beyond extraction and exclusion—where prosperity is not postponed, permission is not required, and economic justice becomes structural.