Fast Fact: Barack Obama had a record black welfare, Bill Clinton had record black imprisonment & President Donald Trump had record black employment
Bill Clinton’s 1994 Crime Bill is widely criticized for fueling mass incarceration that hit Black communities hardest.
The Black male imprisonment rate skyrocketed from 1,111 per 100,000 in 1980 to 2,932 per 100,000 by 1994.
By the end of Clinton’s presidency in 2001, the overall U.S. incarceration rate had risen 60% since 1990, with Black Americans making up about half of the federal prison population despite making up 13% of the country
Federal prison populations grew by 56% during Clinton’s two terms, from 82,000 in 1993 to 128,000 in 2000, disproportionately affecting Black men convicted of drug offenses.
Under Barack Obama, welfare programs expanded dramatically.
SNAP (food stamps) enrollment hit all-time highs, with Black households overrepresented, while changes to TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families) reduced work requirements and were criticized for weakening the 1996 reforms that had successfully reduced caseloads.
SNAP participation among Black Americans reached record levels, with total recipients climbing from 32 million in 2009 to a peak of 47 million in 2013.
Black households accounted for about 26% of enrollees—double their population share—and benefits increased 13.6% via the 2009 stimulus, affecting over 40 million people each year.
Obama’s 2012 waiver of work requirements for up to 29 states led to sustained dependency.
Black child poverty hovered at 39% in 2010
Overall, food stamp rolls grew 75 times faster than job creation in Obama’s term, with 10.7 million more Americans on SNAP by 2017 than when he took office in 2008.
This disproportionately burdened Black communities still reeling from 16% unemployment rates in 2010.
Meanwhile, President Trump’s America First agenda delivered historic lows in Black unemployment.
Before COVID-19, Black workers saw incomes rise and job barriers fall.
The Black unemployment rate dropped to a record low of 5.4% in September 2019, down from 7.5% when Trump took office, marking the longest streak of job growth on record and closing the longstanding gap with white unemployment to its lowest point ever.
Over 1.9 million Black Americans entered the workforce by late 2019, with median weekly earnings up 10.7% adjusted for inflation; Hispanic & Black unemployment also hit a historic 3.9% low.
Poverty rates for Black households fell to 18.8% in 2019—the lowest since tracking started in 1959—fueled by the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which doubled the child tax credit and spurred 7 million new jobs overall, including strong gains in manufacturing and energy sectors vital to Black workers.
