Against All Odds: The Fight for a Black Middle Class

New York Times Journalist Bob Herbert narrates this documentary about the extraordinary difficulty African-Americans have faced in their efforts to establish and maintain a middle class standard of living. The film will surprise a lot of people. The black middle class has never been as large or as robust as most Americans - including most black Americans - have wanted to believe. Nearly 40 percent of all black children are poor. For every dollar of wealth in the hands of the average white family, the typical black family has only a little more than a nickel. And the devastating effects of the Great Recession and housing foreclosure crisis, which hit blacks much harder than whites, left the black middle class virtually on life support. With a compelling narrative, dramatic historical footage and a series of deeply personal interviews, Bob Herbert explains why this disturbing and often tragic state of affairs exists a century and a half after slavery and a half-century after the heyday of the civil rights movement.

Episode Duration: 56 minutes and 46 seconds

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