The data are stark and clear: Despite an improving economy, the gap between black and white homeownership continues to be a wide one. Nationally, the black homeownership rate is 41 percent — nearly unchanged from 50 years ago, when the federal Fair Housing Act banned racial discrimination in our sector. That compares to the 71 percent of white adults who own a home. The gap is even wider now than it was in 1900, documents a study by Zillow.