Black-Led Organizations Call for Appointment of Black Members to Federal Reserve Leadership

Washington D.C. — Today, the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies and the Black Economic Alliance (BEA) issued a letter to the Biden Administration encouraging them to appoint multiple Black candidates to Federal Reserve leadership positions that will be filled in the coming months. The letter was signed by the leaders of the Black Women’s Roundtable, Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, The Leadership Conference on Civil & Human Rights, NAACP, NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, the National Association of Investment Companies, the National Action Network, the National Association of Securities Professionals, the National Bankers Association, the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation, the National Council of Negro Women, and the National Urban League. 

Signatories of the letter committed to continue their ongoing efforts to help the Biden administration source and engage top Black talent for key leadership positions, including on the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, to counteract the longstanding absence of Black leadership at the United States’ central bank. The letter emphasizes the importance of the appointment of the first Black chair and first Black woman to the Federal Reserve Board of Governors in American history.

To date, only three Black people have ever been appointed since the Federal Reserve was created in 1913. 

In the letter, the signatories urge President Biden to take a necessary step in delivering on his promises to Black Americans by reversing the historic trend of excluding Black candidates from the Federal Reserve Board of Governors. The letter contends that putting Black American professionals with first-hand lived and professional experience in the Federal Reserve’s leadership is crucial to steering policy, practices and regulations that will benefit the entire economy, while working to reverse the systemic racism and inequities that have restricted the growth of the American economy throughout the entire history of the United States and continue to stunt economic growth today. 

You can read the letter here.