WalletHub MLK Jr. Report: Louisiana Ranks 10th In Nation For Improvements In Race Relations

Today is Martin Luther King Jr Day, and WalletHub has issued a report on race relations which indicates Louisiana is among the top 10 for making the most progress. Spokesperson Jill Gonzales says the report measured the gaps between blacks and whites in 16 key indicators that put the state right at number 10.

"Specifically when we looked at things like health and education, that's where Louisiana is making the most progress," said Gonzales.

Gonzales says, when it came to education, Louisiana ranked 4th and 6th best for making improvements on standardized test scores in reading and math, respectively.

She says even though there was a lot of growth shown here on racial matters, there are still areas that are struggling.

"One of them is business ownership rate," she said, "Here, we're still seeing a pretty large gap between whites and blacks, and over the last ten years, it's only changed by about a percentage point."

Gonzales says there is also a large imbalance of workplace participation among blacks and whites in Louisiana. We're among a handful of other southern states in WalletHub's rankings of racial progress, and Gonzales says there is a bit of the "nowhere to go but up" factor at play.

"Some state simply had more progress to achieve over time," said Gonzales. "We saw that in the top 10, about half were south or deep south states."