I'm closed minded regarding the idea that intelligence has a racial component. Goes for blacks, goes for Orientals.
Do I believe that individuals are born with a varying potential of 'intelligence?' Yes. Given the population on earth at a given moment in time, if accurately measured, likely to reflect a Bell Curve. No surprise there.
Then comes other factors. Culture, parenting, socio-economic forces, history of subcultures within a society, (very important in American hyphen groups), too many additional factors to list.
Since the topic of this thread is 'prove to me, (a white American, I'm surmising), that blacks (meaning black Americans, again surmising), are our equals, a few observations.
Before the Civil War, pretty hard to tell. After the Civil War, during early Reconstruction, those blacks that could read and write, quickly rose to positions of power in the South. Some went North and West, starting businesses and getting involved in politics also. They succeeded, but both in South and North lost when Jim Crow and segregation became the norms. Many did better in the West, where the need for labor was greater.
Then there is the post-Reconstruction. Economically blacks struggled. Jim Crow ruled the South, leaving huge gaps in both education and opportunities, but black families were strong. Children thrived and learned what they could at school, worked hard to help the families in any way they could. In the North, black families also thrived, often all members working multiple jobs, but the schools they were able to attend were below standards even in the South.
WWI found blacks exposed to more opportunities, even more leaving for the North at the end. This is when the now 'rust belt' cities were populated by many fleeing Jim Crow laws, not realizing that it may have been out of the frying pan and into the fire.
The 20's gave blacks in the North their first true impact on greater America, the Harlem Renaissance. For the first time, the culture of black Americans hit the rest of America. Then the Depression. As with all economic calamities, the poor are hit worse. In the West, the Dust Bowl hit all, but blacks had less resources and family to come to their aid. Their relatives in both the North and South were no better off.
WWII saw conscription, without opportunities until the last years. Yet the commitment of those that served in so many ways, became the stuff of legends, indeed history.
it also brought the GI Bill which many black GI's availed themselves to. That was a great boost, educated black Americans from humble beginnings, with a knowledge of prejudiced in the armed services, meeting up with civil rights movement.
Brown v Bd of Ed was the impetus, then MLK and Malcolm X. Different messages in some ways, certainly different solutions offered, but the bottom line was that things had to change. From the 50's on, they were.
Then came the 'War on Poverty' which was late 60's and 70's. It seems to me that history should rename it, 'The War on the Black Family,' which it was, no matter how unintentional. That it overlapped with the 'free love' and the widespread acclaim of 'the birth control pill' was an unfortunate coincidence. Then Roe v Wade in 1973. Many broader cultural actions were in force over the same period.
The breakdown of the black family, marriage, fatherhood began with the War on Poverty. It encouraged pregnancy without a man at home. Food and housing provided, but no man allowed. There were stories in the MSM about women who were on 'benefits', but 'good women' who had only one man and she him, but he had to leave to make sure the gov't workers wouldn't find a man there in the morning.
Shockingly, young men started to realize, they didn't have to 'provide' the government would. Women realized that the more babies they had, the more the government would pay them. That it wasn't enough to successfully raise the child, especially if the father refused to contribute, was learned too late. A cycle had begun.
What can I say this area is off limits. 
