The Racial Equity Profile Action Group is a task force organized after the publication of The Lancaster County Racial Equity Profile in 2021. The group holds accountability within the indicators set in place by the report. These include housing, youth preparedness, economic vitality, justice, education & health outcomes.
The truth is:
- Lancaster County stands to gain a great deal from addressing racial inequities. The county’s economy could have been nearly two billion dollars stronger in 2019 if its racial gaps in income had been closed: more than a six percent increase.
- If there were no racial disparities in either wages or employment, people of color would stand to gain tens of thousands of dollars in annual income.
- Black and Latinx Pennsylvanians are disproportionately more likely to be incarcerated in jails and prisons compared to white Pennsylvanians. Lancaster County Prison has a higher disparity in Black and Latinx prisoners when compared to state numbers.
- Nearly half of renters in the county are housing insecure.
- Lancaster County's eviction rate is among the highest in Pennsylvania.
Today, we race against systemic racism and the undercurrent of inequities that flows through the outdated infrastructures that serve as a shaky foundation for Lancaster County. The Racial Equity Profile Action Group is unabashedly dedicated to dismantling them and working shoulder-to-shoulder with groups that serve the spirit of the community and remember the abolitionists, advocates, prolific legislators, pastors and allies that called Lancaster "home".
Their names are:
Thaddeus Stevens
Lydia Smith-Hamilton
Abram Polite
Nelson Polite Sr.
Ashleigh Dudley
Kenneth Bost
Karen Dixon
Rita Smith-Wade-El
Rev. Alexander Stephens
Rev. F.T.M. Webster
Rev. Ernest Christian
Rev. Ronald Taliaferro
Rev. Edward Bailey
Rev. Harvey Sparkman III
Carrie Foster
Ellen Griest
Betty Tompkins
Lindley Coates
Thomas Whitson
James Miller McKim
William Whiffer
Steven Smith
