How to close the digital divide in Black America

The digital divide was first recognized in the mid-1990s. Three decades later, due in part to long-standing economic inequity and the economics of broadband, it remains an impediment to inclusive economic growth, particularly in Black American communities. Approximately 40 percent of Black American households—as opposed to 28 percent of White American households—don’t have high-speed, fixed broadband. In dense urban areas such as Chicago and Baltimore, Black households are twice as likely as their White counterparts to lack a high-speed internet subscription. In the rural South, 38 percent of Black households . . .