The Report Calls for Bold Actions to Build Black Wealth and Announces Two New Partnerships to Help Address Longstanding Disparities
On Tuesday, May 6, the Chicago Urban League convened nearly 300 business, civic, and community leaders for its annual Policy Summit, where it unveiled the 2025 State of Black Chicago report. Titled “A Laddered Path to Wealth Building,” the report outlined entrepreneurship, workforce development, homeownership, education, health, civic engagement, and justice as key drivers of wealth and proposed collaborative solutions and policy changes for building Black wealth through in each of these areas. An executive summary of the report can be found here, and the full report can be found here.
“The disparities that Black communities face are already well documented. Now it’s time to implement targeted solutions,” said Karen Freeman-Wilson, President and CEO of the Chicago Urban League. “This report is an essential call to action for some of the most influential leaders in Chicago.”
In the report’s introduction, Freeman-Wilson also noted, “In an era where the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is being used to undermine diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, and the United States Supreme Court used the 14th Amendment of the United States Constitution to dismantle a level playing field in college admissions, we could have easily leaned into the frustration and predicted gloom and doom. Alternatively, we have chosen to share solutions to seemingly intractable challenges.”
The report introduced a five-stage “laddered” framework to help Black residents build wealth — from basic financial stability to generational wealth building. Policy recommendations focus on financial wealth building areas like entrepreneurship, workforce development, and homeownership, as well as holistic wealth building opportunities like education, health, and justice reforms. While past reports have focused on documenting disparities, the 2025 edition centered on actionable and collaborative strategies to build an inclusive economy in Chicago.
“The state of Black Chicago, like the state of our entire city, is critical,” said Dr. Suzet McKinney, Chair of the Chicago Urban League’s Board of Directors. “We know that there are many, many bright spots, with our collective educational attainment and political achievements, but we also know that there are challenges ahead of us that we must address. That’s why we are focusing on solutions in this edition of the State of Black Chicago.”
New Partnerships to Drive Black Wealth Building
Along with releasing the report, the Chicago Urban League also announced a new collaboration with Edward Jones and Kredit Academy to promote Kredit Quest — a mobile app that rewards users of all ages for improving their financial knowledge. The partnership aims to introduce demonstrated financial education as an alternative consideration for lenders that currently rely largely on credit history and assets — a practice that disproportionately disadvantages Black people given the generational and systemic challenges to wealth building.
The League also announced that it has joined forces with Kinexx, a leader in modular construction, and Ani Real Estate, a full-service residential and commercial real estate firm, to expand access to affordable homeownership in Chicago. Launching in May 2025, the initiative plans to build 10 homes in its first year, 40 in the second, and up to 70 homes in year three. The long-term goal is to replicate the model through Urban League affiliates nationwide — bringing the dream of homeownership within reach for more Black families across the country.
“If we create 50 to 100 more homeowners across Chicagoland annually, the ripple effect on generational wealth and community stability is huge. That’s the kind of impact we’re looking to have,” said Lutalo McGee, owner of Ani Real Estate.
To encourage conversation about these calls to action and partnerships, the Policy Summit featured a keynote address by Dedrick Asante-Muhammad, President of the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, who spoke about the national state of Black economic and political power. A dynamic panel discussion on wealth building followed, moderated by Chicago Urban League Chief Operating Officer Calmetta Coleman. Panelists included Suheily Davis, Vice President of Global Inclusion at McDonald’s; Kenya Merritt, Deputy Mayor for Business and Neighborhood Development for the City of Chicago; and Tyronne Stoudemire, Senior Vice President of Global Human Resources at Hyatt.
“In the coming years, I hope to begin to see progress in these numbers – an increase in Black wealth in Chicago and meaningful progress in addressing longstanding barriers to capital, education, health care and workforce opportunities” said Kenya Merritt, Deputy Mayor for Business, Economic and Neighborhood Development. “This is the beginning of a more cohesive approach – not only to name the challenges we face, but most importantly, to create a clear path forward to address them.
To highlight the importance of workforce development in wealth building, this year’s event was held in tandem with the Win-Win Workplace Summit, in partnership with the Future Forward Institute, Harvard University’s Project on Workforce, and the Corporate Coalition of Chicago.
