Intergenerational poverty has created a severe wealth gap between Black and white families in the United States: today, the median white family has almost ten times the wealth of the median Black family.

The truth is, due to systems of oppression throughout our country's history — from slavery to redlining — a disproportionate share of Black and brown families have been unable to accrue and pass down wealth to their children, grandchildren, and future generations the way many white families have.

In 1969, my own parents essentially had to pose as a white couple in order to purchase a house, which was in a predominantly white neighborhood. Their ability to purchase our home forever impacted my life in a positive way, but not every family has that opportunity.

The discriminatory laws and circumstances that have prevented Black people from buying property, obtaining good-paying jobs, and investing their wealth has had a detrimental long-term impact, but we have the power to change that.

It's time we give every child in America the opportunity to build wealth and achieve success, no matter the circumstances they were born into. That's why I introduced the American Opportunity Accounts Act, more commonly known as "baby bonds," through which the U.S. government would give every newborn child a savings account seeded with $1,000 at birth, with the potential to receive up to an additional $2,000 every year based on their family's income.

That savings, which would grow over time with interest, could then be utilized by children when they turn 18 to go towards wealth-building investments like a college education or vocational training, a down payment on a house, or starting a business.

We have the opportunity to break the ongoing cycle of intergenerational poverty and provide upward mobility for all of our children. But we need to show Congress that the public strongly supports this. Add your name to become a co-sponsor of my bill to give a baby bond to every newborn in America today.

Thank you for standing by my side in the fight to close the racial wealth gap and provide economic opportunity to every child.

— Cory