State of Black Los Angeles 2025: Data-Driven Progress and Cross-Cultural Solidarity
On October 16, 2025, USC’s Town and Gown Ballroom will host conversations about racial equity in Los Angeles County. The State of Black Los Angeles (SBLA) 2025 brings together policymakers, community leaders, scholars, and advocates for a day dedicated to examining challenges, measuring progress, and building solutions across communities.
This year’s theme, Solidarity in Action: Black and Brown LA, signals an important evolution in how we approach systemic inequity in one of America’s most diverse metropolitan areas.
The Power of Data: ARDI’s Critical Role
At the heart of SOBLA 2025 is the Los Angeles County Anti-Racism, Diversity and Inclusion (ARDI) Initiative, led by Executive Director Dr. D’Artagnan Scorza. The ARDI Initiative serves as the event’s analytical backbone, providing the comprehensive data that transforms anecdotal experience into actionable intelligence.
Dr. Scorza will present the latest findings from ARDI’s extensive research, a trends analysis on racial progress in Los Angeles County. The data exposes persistent systemic inequities, but also meaningful progress in some areas.
The ARDI Initiative examines critical areas including housing, health, education, employment, justice, immigration, and civic engagement. By grounding the conversation in hard data rather than assumptions, the initiative enables policymakers and community leaders to identify specific disparities and measure progress with precision.
This data-driven approach is what sets the State of Black LA apart. The Los Angeles Urban League was the first organization to take the County’s ARDI report and transform it into a public-facing event that invites action, collaboration, and accountability.
Why Solidarity Matters Now
The numbers tell a compelling story. Latinos comprise 48% of LA County’s population, while African Americans represent 8%. Together, these communities represent more than half of the county’s residents. Nationally, Black and Brown Americans, who make up over 30% of the U.S. population, wield a combined spending power of $6 trillion, larger than the economies of every nation except the United States and China.
Yet despite this economic potential, both communities face disproportionate challenges in health access, homeownership, employment, and nearly every economic indicator. The question at the heart of the State of Black LA 2025 is direct: if we collectively hold such power, why do disparities persist?
Three Critical Conversations
The State of Black LA 2025 features three panel discussions tackling the most pressing issues facing Black and Brown communities:
- Health: Increasing Access and Life Expectancy will examine physical health challenges in a post-COVID era, addressing insurance costs, aging populations, and healthcare accessibility.
- Economic Empowerment and Entrepreneurship, Building Pathways to Prosperity will explore how to boost economic outlooks amidst recovery from fires, rising tariffs, and persistent wealth gaps.
- Immigration, Building Cross-Community Solidarity takes center stage as panelists discuss strategies to address the immigration crisis affecting both Black and Brown communities.
Each panel brings together subject matter experts, from union leaders to immigration attorneys, from health practitioners to economic development specialists, ensuring diverse perspectives inform the solutions.
Moving Beyond Discussion to Action
What makes the State of Black LA particularly powerful is its explicit goal: moving from discussion to action, from action to programs, and from programs to policy that creates measurable change. The ARDI Initiative provides the metrics to track that progress year over year.
While in-person attendance is sold out, NBC4 and Telemundo 52 will livestream the entire program from 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m., ensuring broad access to these vital conversations. The bilingual broadcasting partnership itself reflects the event’s commitment to cross-cultural solidarity.
Click here to watch the live stream
Click here to learn more about the trends analysis and the State of Black Los Angeles County report