Photos: Isseu Diouf Campbell
New York City Deputy Mayor J. Phillip Thompson hosted a 2020 Census Black media roundtable on Monday, February 3, 2020 at City Hall in an attempt to reverse the low response rate in Black and immigrant communities.
The roundtable included Black community, faith, and civil rights leaders from across the city: Lurie Daniel Favors, Esq., interim director, Center for Law and Social Justice at Medgar Evers College; Jennifer Jones Austin, Esq., CEO and executive director, the Federation of Protestant Welfare Agencies; L. Joy Williams, president, Brooklyn NAACP; and Sheena Wright, Esq., president and CEO, United Way of New York City. Julie Menin, director, NYC Census 2020, and Kathleen Daniel, field director, NYC Census 2020, also joined the discussion.
In 2010, New York City’s self-response rate to the census was just 61.9%, whereas the national average was 76%. In many neighborhoods with predominantly Black populations across the city, the response rates were even lower, falling in the 40-to-50-percent range.
African-Americans have been historically excluded from the census starting from the three-fifth clause considering them only as three-fifths of a citizen of the U.S. For immigrants, the fear that Immigration and Customs Enforcement will access their information dissuades many of participating.
Additionally, for the first time, the Census will be conducted primarily online with 29% of households – 917,239 New Yorkers in total – lacking broadband Internet access.
With an investment of $1.4 million in 110 libraries located in historically undercounted areas, an award of 19 million to 150 community based organizations and a plan to invest $3 million in community and ethnic media advertising, the City is doing more than it ever has to ensure that it receives the federal funds proportionate to its population and its fair share of representation in Congress.
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