“The Decade of the Hispanic: An Economic Retrospective”

The National Council of La Raza (NCLR), later renamed UnidosUS, was established in 1968 with the mission of reducing poverty, discrimination, and creating new opportunities for Hispanic Americans. The NCLR, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization, applied research, policy analysis, and advocacy measures to provide much-needed assistance in developing programs and resources to serve low-income and disadvantaged Hispanic communities. In this report examining conditions of the 1980s, the NCLR focused on housing, education, employment, immigration, and civil rights enforcement and found numerous disparities and inequalities between Hispanic and white communities, including how reporting was conducted. The 1980s witnessed an increase in the growth of the Hispanic population generally and in the workforce.