In 2022, the median white family in the US had about $285,000 in wealth, compared with $44,900 for the median Black family, according to the Federal Reserve's Survey of Consumer Finances. That is more than six times as much. The gap in wealth is far larger than the gap in income, because wealth builds up across generations.
The gap was created by policy. Enslaved people were denied wages for 250 years, and the promise of land after emancipation was reversed. In the 20th century, Black families were excluded from many New Deal and GI Bill benefits, from FHA-backed mortgages through redlining, and from white suburbs through restrictive covenants. Massacres like Tulsa in 1921 destroyed Black wealth directly.
Because wealth pays for college, down payments, business startups and emergencies, the gap shapes nearly every part of life. Education and income alone have not closed it. Proposals to address it include baby bonds, reparations, down payment assistance for descendants of redlined families and ending predatory lending.