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Like many who followed in the footsteps of Dr. Martin Luther King, popular television and radio host Tavis Smiley rejoiced when the first black American president took office in 2009.  Yet despite the momentous occasion, economic mobility for African-Americans has declined in recent years.

"No matter how hard you work, how many hours you work, how much education you get, or how dutiful you are, you still can't see to get ahead," Smiley said. "We have lost ground on most of the issues in every single leading economic category, even in the Obama era.  Color matters less than your policy. If your policies are wrong, and black people aren't benefiting by them, what difference does it make?"

Early this year, journalist Lauren Victoria Burke reported that while the black unemployment rate under President Bush averaged 10 percent, the average under President Obama is hovering around 14 percent. Black unemployment "has always been double" the unemployment rate of white Americans, she wrote, but when black unemployment rates hit 16 percent in late 2011 – a 27-year high – it signaled a dangerous slide backwards.

And with unemployment comes poverty. Today, one in seven Americans live below the poverty line. Not surprisingly number of black Americans living in poverty is also up: from 25 percent in 2009 to 27 percent. 

And when it comes to the black/white wealth gap, the nation has hit a disturbing 24-year high. A December study by the PEW Research Center revealed that the average White household has a median net worth of $141,900, whereas the average black household is worth $11,000. Between 2010 to 2013, the median income for black households plunged a dangerous 9 percent.

And finally there are the disturbing statistics regarding education and small business loans. Currently 42 percent of black children attend high poverty schools, compared to only 6 percent of white students. And last year the Wall Street Journal reported that in 2013 only 1.7 percent of the $23 billion offered in SBA loans went to black-owned businesses — the lowest level of SBA lending to black businesses in American history. During the Bush presidency, the percentage loans to black businesses was more than four times the rate under the present administration.

According to Smiley, "(For black Americans) there is now a highway into poverty, and a sidewalk to get out."

He believes Dr. Martin Luther King offered the solution to the plight of African Americans more than five decades ago.

"I believe the future of this country is inextricably linked to how seriously we take the legacy of Dr. King, which is justice for all, service to others, and the love that liberates people," he said. "To get to that legacy — to make America a nation as good as its promise — we have to deal with the three issues King called 'the triple threat' facing our democracy: Poverty, racism, and militarism. If we don't get serious about that 'triple threat,' we'll never make his legacy a reality - and America will never become the great nation that it can be."

To listen to the full interview with Tavis Smiley visit www.rebeccacosta.com