Data plays a critical role in helping build a more equitable society. As leaders and organizations across the country grapple with how to strategically invest in Black communities, having access to relevant data about wealth equity in the U.S. is essential. Unfortunately, that data is often out-of-date, inaccessible, not disaggregated by race, and not available at the local level.

So, how can we work to reduce the gaps in racial wealth equity data?

Supported by the Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Greenwood Initiative, the Black Wealth Data Center works to remedy the problem of insufficient and inaccessible data on the topic of Black wealth. By making relevant data disaggregated by race available, the Black Wealth Data Center's Racial Wealth Equity Database empowers leaders to leverage the data necessary to develop and implement effective programs and policies to increase racial wealth equity.

To celebrate the Black Wealth Data Center’s recent one-year anniversary, Katherine Oliver sits down with Garnesha Ezediaro, who leads Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Greenwood Initiative, Darrick Hamilton, the Founding Director of the Institute for the Study of Race, Stratification and Political Economy at the New School, and Lamar Gardere, the Executive Director at The Data Center of Southeast Louisiana and national recipient of the Black Wealth Data Center and National Neighborhood Indicator’s Local Data and Engagement Grant Program, to discuss the importance of data in advancing racial wealth equity, the challenges faced by organizations that don’t have access to data, and how the Black Wealth Data Center is helping provide decision-makers with data collection and accessibility.