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The unemployment gap between blacks and whites widened last year, endangering financial gains African-Americans achieved in the 1990s, according to an annual National Urban League report to be released Wednesday. Blacks have achieved only 57% of the economic status of whites, and unemployment is a primary factor, the civil rights organization says in The State of Black America. Blacks were particularly hard-hit by the stock market collapse that began in 2000 and the rising joblessness that followed historically low unemployment rates in the 1990s, says Marc Morial, president of the National Urban League. "These are all signs of a stalling and a stagnation in the economic condition of African-Americans," he says. The unemployment rate for blacks was 10.8% in 2004, 2.3 times the white rate of 4.7%. The white unemployment rate dropped from 5.2% the previous year, while the black rate was unchanged.[more]