Urban League opens annual conference

? The new president of the National Urban League said Sunday that the number of blacks with bachelor’s degrees is at a high but warned that success in the classroom is marred by rising incarceration rates and covert racism.

Census figures show that in 2002, 17 percent of blacks ages 25 and older had a bachelor’s degree, a record high. But Marc Morial said that achievement was overshadowed by the number of blacks in jail.

“We must ask why does the rate of incarceration of our black men continue to exceed the rate of college admission? Why in the year 2000 were there at least 12 states where there were more African Americans in prisons than in college?” Morial said. “We must not be afraid to say to ourselves that we have much work to do.”