by Saeed Shabazz
Staff Writer

NEW YORK��Certainly, African Americans as a group have never had it so good,� writes �The State of Black America� editor Lee A. Daniels, in the book�s forward. He explains that his reason for such an optimistic overview is �the record low unemployment rates and the expanded middle and working classes.�

�The State Of Black America 2000: Blacks In The New Millennium,� is published by The National Urban League (NUL). The League�s fifth executive director Vernon Jordan first introduced the annual report, during his 10-year tenure, from 1971-81.

Hugh B. Price is the National Urban League�s seventh president, taking over in 1994. In his keynote address given July 30 at the 90th Annual National Urban League Convention in New York City, Mr. Price said that the lower unemployment, the expanded middle class and Blacks occupying significant positions in corporate America was the �happy state of Black America today.�

�But!� he cautioned, �There�s a bleaker side�millions of Black families and children have yet to make the journey to the economic mainstream.�

Over 3,000 Urban League members and friends attended the July 29-Aug. 2 convention at the Javits Convention Center. There were 12 workshops, a health and job fair, gala benefits and speeches from business, religious, academic and political leaders.

But, the leading topics at the convention was that with prosperity in the Black community, many �are missing in action, not reaching back to help,� and that police brutality �is most likely the major issue in the Black community today.�

�We are beyond the talking stage,� declared the Honorable John Wiley Price, county commissioner of Dallas, Texas,  speaking during a panel discussion to address the need for young men and women to take part in social activism. �Our community needs to see success�and not success defined by someone else,� he said.

Mr. Price of Texas talked about being present for young brothers and sisters, representing a standard and living that standard, so �the young will have something to emulate.�

  In an interview with The Final Call on August 1, Hugh B. Price said, �the vital signs are pointing in the right direction, but we have a lot of work to do.�

  Mr. Price spoke of the 21st century and a new era where economic power becomes the next civil rights frontier and a new image for the NUL. The organization, he said, would aggressively promote educational achievement for Black youth.

  But, declared Mr. Price, �before talk begins about bringing Blacks into the economic mainstream, the criminal justice system must be addressed.

�We talk in �The State of Black America� about how the criminal justice system is knocking a lot of our young people off course. There is a cancer in the criminal justice system and we have to deal with it,� he said.

New York Congressman Charles Rangel (D) agrees: �Nobody seems outraged at the beatings of unarmed Black men across the country,� he said during the panel discussion on Police Brutality, which was attended by Assistant U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder.

  �We can get a handle on this thing,� explained Mr. Holder, in an exclusive interview. �We as Black men must be honest with ourselves, that we have not been as meaningfully involved in the raising of our children. We ask too much of our women, in the raising of the children. We have to deal with all of these things if we want to get a handle on crime,� he said.