As the election cycle deepens and Americans tighten their pockets due to financial strain, U.S. Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Wally Adeyemo will travel to Atlanta on Thursday to shed light on Joe Biden’s economic investments in Black communities.
Adeyemo spoke with Atlanta Black Star on Tuesday ahead of his trip to the metropolitan area, known for being the country’s Black mecca for professionals and creatives, in an exclusive interview. ABS asked the leading economist to assess the department’s successes and the administration’s plans to tackle lingering issues.
The following one-on-one conversation has been condensed and edited.
Atlanta Black Star: What has been the administration’s most successful initiative aimed at helping Black people?
Wally Adeyemo: The core of every Black household is what we can do to advance the lives of our children. I think that one of the most significant things that the president pushed for was the Advance Child Tax Credit, which was money during the pandemic to go to parents to help them provide for their children.
Note: US Census data shows that the poverty rate among Black children in 2022 was at 22.3 percent, a decline from 2021 when it was 25.9 percent. Last year’s data will likely be published in September 2024.
I think the second thing that we’ve been really impressed by is the historic number of Black Americans who have started their own small businesses. The Biden administration has provided $1.4 billion to Black-owned banks in this country to help make loans and give capital and other kinds of financing to businesses in the Black community.
In addition to those programs, we’ve done everything from providing rental assistance to Americans during the pandemic, which disproportionately helped a number of Black Americans stay in their home during this challenging period. Because of the various things that we’ve done, that led us to go from a place where Black unemployment was…
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