Treasury Secretary says US economy 'has never worked fairly for Black Americans' or 'for any American of color'
ABC News
"There is still much more work Treasury needs to do to narrow the racial wealth divide," Yellen said Monday.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen discussed the systemic inequities still lurking in the U.S. economy and the work her department "needs to do to narrow the racial wealth divide," during remarks Monday at an event honoring the late Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
"From Reconstruction, to Jim Crow, to the present day, our economy has never worked fairly for Black Americans -- or, really, for any American of color," the Treasury chief said during the Rev. Al Sharpton's National Action Network's annual breakfast honoring the life and legacy of King.
On what would have been his 93rd birthday, Yellen reflected on how the late civil rights icon -- often referred to as the "moral leader of our nation" -- knew that, "economic injustice was bound up in the larger injustice he fought against."
Since taking office last January, Yellen said that she and her team have worked hard to "ensure that neither the figurative bank of justice -- nor any literal economic institution -- fails to work for people of color."
