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Trump pledges to expand opportunity for every race

President Donald Trump pledged to expand opportunity for Americans of every race, religion, and creed as he commemorated Black History Month.

President Donald Trump, with first lady Melania Trump (left), Vice President Mike Pence (right), and his wife, Karen Pence, speaks during a National African American History Month reception in the East Room of the White House in Washington, Thursday, Feb. 21, 2019.
President Donald Trump, with first lady Melania Trump (left), Vice President Mike Pence (right), and his wife, Karen Pence, speaks during a National African American History Month reception in the East Room of the White House in Washington, Thursday, Feb. 21, 2019.Read moreManuel Balce Ceneta / AP
    by The Associated Press, The Associated Press
    Published 

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is pledging to expand opportunity for Americans of every race, religion, and creed as he commemorates Black History Month.

Speaking to hundreds Thursday at a White House reception, Trump boasted about the economy and said the unemployment rate for African Americans is at its “lowest ever.”

Black unemployment did reach a low, 5.9 percent, in May 2018. But that figure changes monthly and had increased to 6.8 percent by January.

Trump also touted passage of a criminal justice reform bill in December. He says the nation’s sentencing laws disproportionately “harm African American communities far, far greater than anybody else.”

Katherine Toney, one of the first inmates released through the bill’s passage, thanked Trump and son-in-law Jared Kushner for their efforts as the crowd applauded.