Urban League report: As Black men lose jobs, Marc Morial blasts EEOC

Over the past eight months, Black men have lost more than 567,000 jobs across America.

National Urban League President Marc Morial is placing part of the blame on the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).

Morial said the job losses reflect what he described as a systemic rollback of civil rights enforcement under the Trump administration, combined with the EEOC’s failure to investigate workplace discrimination.

Marc Morial, president of the National Urban League, speaks at a voting rights rally at Clark Atlanta University in Atlanta on Tuesday, April 12, 2022. The rally followed the launch of the civic engagement campaign at the 2022 State Of Black America Event by the National Urban League held at CAU. (Bob Andres/AJC)

“The EEOC has become an embarrassment to America,” Morial said. “The EEOC is refusing to do its job. The EEOC wants to hide racial discrimination.”

Morial’s comments came Thursday with the release of the National Urban League’s annual “State of Black America” report.

Now in its 50th year, the latest report — “America at 250: Is the American Dream Dead?” — examines disparities in employment, wealth, housing, education and health between Black and white Americans.

The report found that Black unemployment, which fell to a record low of 4.7% in 2023 during the Biden administration, has since risen to 7.8%, nearly double the unemployment rate for white workers.

The report also found that white Americans are about 30 percentage points more likely to own homes than Black Americans and estimates Black households have lost $87 billion in income over the past two years.

Morial accused the EEOC of abandoning its mission to enforce federal workplace discrimination laws, saying the agency reflects what he described as the Trump administration’s broader retreat from civil rights enforcement.

He said the Urban League would challenge what it views as the agency’s failure to fulfill its statutory responsibilities.

Andrea Lucas, chair of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, testifies during a Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee hearing on June 18, 2025, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (Mariam Zuhaib/AP)

The EEOC however, said it has continued its efforts to enforce equal employment laws under the leadership of Andrea Lucas, who was appointed chair by Trump last November.

“The agency is committed to ensuring a colorblind, merit-based, and evenhanded enforcement of the law … and to protecting workers of every race and both sexes, based on the merits of their claims,” an EEOC spokesperson said.

Despite the disagreement over the EEOC’s performance, Morial said Black communities have repeatedly demonstrated resilience.

Still, he argued, the report shows Black Americans continue to lag behind white Americans on many measures of economic well-being.