By the numbers: Texas came in second and led the nation in reducing the gap in health insurance coverage between white and Black residents.
Georgia ranked No. 1 on WalletHub's list, as it has reduced the gap between the earnings of white and Black Americans by more than 32% since 1979, the most significant reduction in the nation, the study said.
Yes, but: The ranking appears to have measured gaps between white and Black residents mainly and didn't include data on Latinos, Native Americans or Asian Americans — the largest non-white ethnic or racial groups in many states.
But, but, but: The study is testimony to the gains made since the Civil Rights Movement,Arndrea Waters King, president of the Drum Major Institute, a civil rights think tank, tells Axios.
"It's a sense of pride that Georgia is at the top of that list, particularly since it is the birth, the cradle of the Civil Rights Movement," says King, daughter-in-law of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Between the lines: Though the WalletHub ranking highlights racial progress, it's important to remember how far behind some states were in the 1960s, Cynthia Duarte, director of the Sarah W. Heath Center for Equality and Justice at California Lutheran University, tells Axios.
Duarte says the data on racial progress is misleading if it excludes Asian Americans and Latinos or at least should be presented as an assessment of Black Americans.
