Are African Americans taking the biggest hit because of the down slope of the economy? According to a report released this week, the answer is yes.

In the annual "State of Black America" report, released by the National Urban League (NUL), blacks are far more likely -- than whites -- to be poor, out of work or in jail. And, are "hurting worse" because of the economy.

"Ironically, even as an African American man holds the highest office the country, African Americans remain twice as likely as whites to be unemployed, three times more likely to live in poverty and more than six times as likely to be incarcerated," the report said, according to the AFP.

While both blacks and whites made progress in education, progress for African Americans was slower, over the course of 2001 to 2007. And, the number of white children enrolled in preschool increased by about 3%, said the report, while it fell 1% for black children.

One area blacks were ahead in was the media household income category, where their numbers fell just 1.7% while it fell nearly 4% for whites. But, the poverty rate for blacks increased nearly 8%, while for whites it rose by around 5%.

Despite Obama's continuous message for "Change" throughout his election, NUL CEO Marc Morial stresses that the "change" he talks about will take time and that we all have to work harder to help this "change" come to fruition.

"President Obama has stressed that change comes from the bottom up, not the other way around," Morial said. "It's more important than ever that the National Urban League and other organizations and individuals committed to positive change work even harder to lift up our communities and move this country forward."

Even the song of the late civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr knows that the task at hand is one African Americans need to work for. He urged fellow African American to not rest just because a black man has been elected into the White House.

"His election is not the fulfillment of the dream," Martin Luther King III wrote in a foreword to the report, referring to his father's famous "I have a dream" speech.