WASHINGTON _ Disproportionately high rates of coronavirus. Historic levels of joblessness. Repeated cases of police violence toward African Americans. The crises have created a "perfect storm" of intolerable conditions that have pushed the nation to the brink, black leaders told McClatchy this week, comparing the current turmoil to the turbulence of the 1960s.
Protests over the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man who died in police custody last month, have become a symbol of the racial disparities in America that black leaders say President Donald Trump has failed to effectively address.
"We have witnessed, perhaps, the worst 70 days in U.S. history outside of the Civil War. That all of the things that have bubbled to the surface over the last 70 days, is a direct result of the lack of leadership coming from the White House," Derrick Johnson, head of the NAACP, said.
