From 1963 to 2013: Is black America better off 50 years after ‘I Have a Dream’

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Bridging the wealth gap

“We’re talking major lane changes and not simple policy reform,” Shapiro stresses.  He suggests revamping the tax code, specifically the mortgage interest rate deduction.  The tax code should be reconfigured to reach the public and not a tiny minority.

Hamilton recommends bold policies to increase economic security for all Americans. Hamilton and his colleague William Darity, professor public policy at Duke University, have proposed baby bonds.

Baby bonds would be given to children born into the poorest families. The average amount of a bond would be $15,000.  Hamilton estimates an annual cost of $60 billion to $80 billion, which could be funded by making changes to the mortgage interest deduction. He argues these bonds would not create moral hazards such as fertility incentives or savings disincentives.

Housing: American Dream for some, nightmare for others

During the 1960s and 1970s critical housing legislation was passed. The Fair Housing Act as well as the Community Reinvestment Act of 1975 sought to improve access to housing.

As a result of legislation, homeownership rates rose for African-Americans, peaking at 49.1 percent in 2004, according to the Census Department. However, during the first quarter of 2013, black homeownership stood at 43.1 percent, compared to the 65.2 percent overall homeownership rate.

“Today, we are still fighting for the housing and mortgage lending equality being fought for back then,” says Nikitra Bailey, executive vice president at the Center for Responsible Lending.  She says deregulation of the mortgage industry in the 1980s provided an opening for sub-prime mortgage lending. The lack of regulation made blacks a target for sub-prime loans.

“There was lots of progress made in black homeownership until 2006. It’s been a move backwards since then,” says Ken Rosen, chairman of the Fisher Center for Estate at the Haas School of Business at the University of California – Berkeley.

The housing bubble had has an especially bad effect on African-Americans, Rosen explains. Foreclosures wiped out a much higher percentage of wealth among African-Americans than other populations.

Bailey says since homeownership is a big contributor to wealth accumulation, all Americans who are qualified should have access.  She estimates that by 2034 people of color will account for 70 percent of potential home buyers and warns locking out this group will be a catastrophe for the housing market.

Rosen echoes the importance of keeping credit accessible. “New rules are in place are meant to protect consumers but are making credit harder to access for 40 percent of the population.  Housing is about 90 percent of net worth,” Rosen says. “If you can’t own a house in an area where housing is doing well, it’s hard to build net worth.”

Housing policy should allow for more mobility to own.  Rosen says the U.S. should consider housing vouchers for homeownership as part of a comprehensive package of assistance which would include mortgage counseling and down payment assistance.

Poverty: The forgotten citizens

Poverty is still pervasive in the U.S.  According to the National Poverty Center, one out of every three African-American children lives in poverty, twice the rate of white children.

“The overt barriers to equal opportunity have fallen,” says Ann C. Lin, associate professor of public policy at the University of Michigan.  However, there are a lot of inequalities in society that have to do with structural disadvantages.

Lin says it is all about accumulated vulnerabilities. “If you start out in a more vulnerable position, it makes you more vulnerable to something bad happening. Race in America is part of the structure of accumulated vulnerability.”  People with multiple problems need more than a little bit of help. Lin stresses we have to stop looking for a magic bullet to fight poverty.

“Unfortunately, we are still not making progress in various ways,” says Richard Buery, CEO, of The Children’s Aid Society in New York. Income inequality is at the highest level in decades, but social mobility is declining.

“Child poverty challenges the fundamentals of this country,” Buery says. The March on Washington was also a march for economic equality, jobs and justice. He says although the U.S. has made progress on the justice side, progress on the jobs side is still alarming.

He warns we have a country of a class of children who seem destined to remain poor. “More and more today, children born poor are likely to grow up poor and stay poor and have poor kids. This means the American dream remains elusive.”

Better health care and education

The health care law is a big social program that may help stem the effects of poverty, Lin believes.  Improving a child’s health will not only reduce illness but can positively impact behavior and education.

Buery recommends the U.S. make a massive commitment to early childhood education. “It remains true that the biggest poverty-fighting program is education.”

Children who graduate from college are wealthier, healthier and live longer.

“What really drives the achievement gap between the wealthy and non-wealthy is the investment in [childhood] development programs,” he says.

Shartia Brantley is a producer and on-air reporter at CNBC. Follow Shartia on Twitter at @shartiabrantley