The National Urban League: 'still fighting the good fight': the organization celebrates 95 years of being "a lifeline to equal opportunity"

THE year was 1910. Blacks by the thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, were in the midst of a mass exodus, leaving the South in droves in search of freedom from institutionalized racism. Their destination? The industrial and urban areas of the North, in particular cities like Chicago, Philadelphia, Cleveland and Detroit. In New York City alone, the number of Blacks swelled from 61,000 in 1900 to 92,000 in 1910.

Unskilled and untrained, these migrants often endured harsh living conditions, and soon realized that living in an urban environment was much different from that of a small Southern town. It was in this environment that the Committee on Urban Conditions Among Negroes was formed. Stressing interracial cooperation, Ruth Baldwin, a White widow of a railroad tycoon who was a patron of education for Blacks in the South, and George Haynes, a Fisk University graduate and the first Black to earn a doctorate degree from Columbia University in New York, brought together a committee--representing a variety of institutions and organizations--to study the social and economic conditions of Blacks and to train them to survive in the industrial North.

As the need grew greater, the informal work became more organized. The result was the National Urban League. Today, 95 years later, the National Urban League continues to remain true to its mission--to inspire and enable African-Americans to achieve economic self-reliance and enjoy their rights as equal citizens under the law.

Although it had humble beginnings, the Urban League quickly became a guiding force on issues relating to Blacks. In fact, ever since its first conference--a one-day gathering of social workers who worked with Blacks--was held in New York City in 1911, presidents, first ladies, senators, governors, and civil rights and corporate leaders have looked to the organization to help develop policy on national issues.

Since its inception, the Urban League has been at the forefront of the Civil Rights Movement. The oldest and largest community-based organization devoted to empowering African-Americans to enter the economic and social mainstream, it helps some 2 million people annually through job training, education programs, advocacy and achievement of home ownership.

Today, the Urban League has grown to include a national headquarters in New York City, a Washington, D.C., bureau and 103 affiliates in 35 states and the District of Columbia. Staffed by an interracial team of more than 3,000 professionals and a cadre of more than 40,000 volunteers, the League has played a central role in the drive to eliminate institutional barriers to equal opportunity for African-Americans in every area of American life.

Fully understanding the organization's steep history, Marc Morial took the helm of the National Urban League in 2003. The organization's eighth leader, Morial, a former two-term mayor of New Orleans, follows in the footsteps of venerable leaders Hugh B. Price, John E. Jacob, Vernon E. Jordan Jr., Whitney M. Young Jr., Lester B. Granger, Eugene K. Jones and founder Hayes.

In his first year as president, Morial worked to streamline the organization's headquarters, secure millions of new dollars in funding, and he implemented an "empowerment agenda" that focuses on closing the equality gaps in such areas as education, economics and health that exist for African-Americans and other minority groups. "We are working to define this era, this generation, this time in the continuing march for full and complete equality in this country," Morial says. "We have to reclaim our historic role as the economic voice in Black America."

Says U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush (D-Ill.), a leader during the Freedom Movement: "I was discharged from the Army in 1968. My first job was with B&O Railroad as a yard clerk. I received the job through the Urban League's job program," he says. "This program has been key to unlocking job opportunities for literally thousand of people over the years. Their legacy in fighting issues that Black people are confronted with on a daily basis has been stellar, steadfast and imminently successful."

Only eight years after its inception, the Urban League was operating in 25 cities. The organization experienced dramatic growth during the 1920s. World War I had created a labor shortage in the North, prompting more than 700,000 Blacks to migrate from the South. Early activities of the Urban League centered on securing housing, jobs and health care for Blacks, many times, through "vocation centers" that were set up to advise Blacks.

When jobs dried up during the Great Depression (1929-1936), the Urban League was there to serve as the liaison between major employers and some 750,000 Blacks who were unemployed. League officials handled the cases of families in need and served as placement agents for jobs. Although there were many successes, including placing Blacks in nontraditional jobs, T. Arnold Hill, who headed the Urban League's Industrial Relations Department, declared: "At no time in the history of the Negro since slavery has his economic and social outlook seemed so discouraging."