MURFREESBORO, Tenn. (WMOT) -- Just in time for the Martin Luther King holiday a new study gives Tennessee strong marks for its racial integration.
WMOT news partner Wallethub.com compiled the data using 10 different metrics, including median annual income, home ownership rates, voter turnout and education levels.
Tennessee placed ninth for racial parity among the 50 states and the District of Columbia. Wallethub says two of the areas where the state ranked highest were in labor force participation and household income.
Analyst Jill Gonzalez says there are other indicators where Tennessee could use some improvement.
“There’s 15 percent more blacks living under the poverty line than whites, so that’s something that could definitely use an improvement, and then there’s the education levels; the percentage of those with at least a high school degree or a bachelor’s degree.”
Looking at Tennessee’s neighbors, only Kentucky and Georgia scored higher. Surprisingly, all of the states with the worst racial integration scores are located in the upper Midwest and the Northeast.
Would you like to review the complete Wallethub report?