The United States was a few months shy of its 200th anniversary when Vernon Jordan, then-executive director of the National Urban League, issued the first “State of Black America” report.
He was provoked by the complete omission of “black citizens and their needs” from both President Gerald Ford’s State of the Union Address and U.S. Sen. Edmund Muskie’s, D-Maine, response.
A half-century later, as we mark the 250th anniversary of the nation, the 2026 edition of “The State of Black America” — set for release July 30 — poses a question that the nation has never fully answered: Is the American dream dead?
The current assault on civil rights and racial equity has intensified alarmingly in recent years, mostly during President Donald Trump’s two terms. A major catalyst was the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2013 decision in Shelby County v. Holder that gutted Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act. States raced to enact voter suppression laws that made a mockery of Chief Justice John Roberts’ claim that “current conditions” did not justify federal protection against discriminatory state voting laws.
Similarly, a frenzy of racially gerrymandered congressional maps enacted in the wake of the more recent Louisiana v. Callais ruling gave the lie to the majority’s assumption that states would not exploit the decision to disguise discrimination as partisanship.
Callais, in fact, relied on a false claim about what exactly transpired after Shelby — a claim that Justice Samuel Alito copied almost verbatim from a Trump administration filing: that Black voter turnout had exceeded white voter turnout in two of the five most recent presidential elections.
In reality, after reaching near parity in the 2008 and 2012 presidential elections, the Black-white voter turnout gap not only widened nationwide since Shelby, it grew twice as fast in counties previously covered by the preclearance requirement that Shelby overturned.
There is reason for hope. Today’s civil rights community is more organized, legally sophisticated and deeply connected than ever before. A rising generation of leaders understands that the struggle for Black America and other marginalized groups is, ultimately, a struggle for the future of American democracy itself. Strong coalitions remain in place.
The courts have not entirely abandoned their responsibility. On the final day of its 2025-26 term, the U.S. Supreme Court reaffirmed one of the Reconstruction Amendments’ most enduring promises, ruling that birthright citizenship remains a constitutional guarantee under the 14th Amendment. In rejecting an attempt to narrow citizenship — and further restrict the voting-eligible population — the Court reaffirmed that constitutional rights cannot be erased by political expediency and that the promise of equal citizenship remains fundamental to American democracy.
But hope, by itself, is not a strategy. The work of the next 50 years will be defined by the choices we make now: to defend democracy at the ballot box, in the courts and in the streets; to affirm diversity not as a program, but as a national principle; and to build durable economic power capable of withstanding whatever challenges lie ahead.
As our nation observes its 250th anniversary, the American Dream is most definitely under attack, but it is not dead.
The challenge before us is not simply to celebrate our history but to complete it. The nation’s founding promise remains unfinished work. Democracy requires more than elections; it requires equal access, equal justice and equal opportunity.
If we fail, we risk creating a nation in which power becomes increasingly insulated from accountability and opportunity is limited by race, wealth or geography.
But if we succeed, America at 250 can be more than a commemoration. It can be a renewal — a testament that, even amid fierce disagreement and unfinished struggles, the Constitution still bends toward inclusion, citizenship still carries meaning and democracy remains strong enough to fulfill its promise for the next generation.
Marc H. Morial is president and CEO of the National Urban League and was mayor of New Orleans from 1994 to 2002.