The Lowering of the Unemployment Rate Among African Americans in North Omaha

OMAHA, NE - APRIL 30: On the first day of a job training program, Angelica Dunn, a 22-year-old mother of two, takes calls concerning her parenting classes and a doctor's appointment while on lunch break at Metropolitan Community College - Fort Omaha Campus in North Omaha on Monday, April 30, 2018, in Omaha, NE. Her cell phone bills were unpaid and she could no longer make outgoing calls but could receive them. She had spent the first part of the day sitting in the back of a classroom hearing from a representative of AirLite Plastics, a local plastics company that was offering job interviews to this first day's class of 12 unemployed adults. Out of a total of four women, Angelica started off as one of two African American women in a group of students that included 5 African American people, if the refugee man from Ethiopia and the one from South Sudan are not to be counted as African Americans. Over the past decade, concentrated efforts by various organizations in Omaha have helped drastically drive down the unemployment rate among African Americans, particularly in North Omaha, which is majority Black. While Donald Trump brags about how he has helped lower the national unemployment rate among Blacks, the city of Omaha has shown how a small group doing targeted employment bootcamps and workshops can help boost statistics with minimal help from the local, state, or federal government. (Photo by Jahi Chikwendiu/The Washington Post via Getty Images)