How ABC’s efforts to address the racial wealth gap have evolved over 40 years

Chrissy Thornton, the leader of one of Maryland’s most active racial equity organizations, believes Baltimore is on the path to thriving.

An alum of Morgan State University, Thornton last year became president and CEO of Associated Black Charities (ABC), which has worked for nearly four decades to close the racial wealth gap and end structural racism.

She’s working to grow the organization’s staff as ABC’s focus continues to expand.

“While over the 38 years we focus mainly on economic impact … we show up as an organization that’s looking to address the many ways comprehensively that racism affects people,” Thornton told Technical.ly in a recent interview, “including in education, housing, health care access, the criminal justice system, workplace discrimination, and then certainly the racial wealth gap.”

That gap, usually defined as the disparity in total household assets between different demographics, is 10 to 1 nationally and 8 to 1 in Maryland, she noted.

ABC was founded in Baltimore in 1985 with a $100,000 grant from the United Way, Thornton said, by a group of faith community leaders and Black business leaders.

“[They] were looking at how the needs of, really, the Jewish community and the Catholic communities were being addressed in Baltimore,” she said, “and felt that that same attention was lacking in the direction of the Black community.”

The nonprofit has a big board of directors, including community and economic development experts, and currently operates with a staff of eight, per Thornton, who said her aspiration was to achieve full staffing with 10 people in 2024.

ABC tackles challenges faced by Black individuals in Maryland through various programs in the Greater Baltimore region, including its Equity in Action conference, Equity First Speaker Series, Black Leadership Circle and the Board Pipeline Leadership Development Program, which goes beyond learning about board budgets and negotiating board service. (The application period for the Spring 2024 session of the board pipeline program closed on Jan. 28.)

Learn more about ABC’s programs here

Thornton, who thinks Black History is important every day, envisions ABC’s role in fostering community engagement by acting as a voice through convening community partners and conducting listening sessions.

Through these interactions, ABC aims to understand the challenges faced by the Black community, as well as identify positive aspects within their own communities.

“We also talk about what it means to show up as a Black person in predominantly white spaces and the power you can wield being in those spaces,” Thornton said. “When you’re willing to, I think, disrupt the natural course of conversation and to lend your equity framework and to lend your unique perspectives.”

In general, Thornton is not keen on DEI for it being too broad.

Black leaders had something to be proud of in their emergence when companies sought to diversify their staffs following the death of George Floyd, she said, but she implores them to ask questions about whether they are truly included in spaces where they don’t ultimately have full authority.

“The work was initiated with inviting them, but now the work has to be done to include them and to meet the policies, practices, and the culture of these organizations,” Thornton said. “Not just welcoming but safe for Black people to thrive and be successful.”