# National Urban League

Part of a series on :
African Americans :
History
Periods
Timeline
Atlantic slave trade
Abolitionism in the United States
Slavery in the colonial history of the US
Revolutionary War
Antebellum period
Slavery and military history during the Civil War
Reconstruction era
Politicians
Juneteenth
Civil rights movement (1865–1896)
Jim Crow era (1896–1954)
Civil rights movement (1954–1968)
Black power movement
Post–civil rights era
Aspects
Agriculture history
Black Belt in the American South
Business history
Military history
Treatment of the enslaved
Migrations
Great Migration
Second Great Migration
New Great Migration :
Culture
Lifeways
Dance
Family structure
Film
Folktales
Music
Musical theater
Names
Neighborhoods
Newspapers
Soul food
Schools
Education during the slave period in the US
Education of freed people during the Civil War
History of African-American education, after the Civil War
Historically black colleges and universities
Fraternities
Academic study
Studies
Art
Literature
Celebrations
Martin Luther King Jr. Day
Black History Month
Juneteenth
Kwanzaa
Economic class
African-American businesses
Middle class
Upper class
Billionaires
Symbols and ideas
African-American beauty
Black is beautiful
Black pride
African-American hair
Good hair
Stepping
"Lift Every Voice and Sing"
Self-determination :
Religion
Institutions
Black church
Theologies
Black theology
Womanist theology
Non-Christian groups
Hoodoo
Black Hebrew Israelites
African-American Jews
African-American Muslims
Nation of Islam
Louisiana Voodoo
African Diaspora Religions :
Politics
Organizations
Congressional Black Caucus
Joint Center
National Black Caucus of State Legislators
National Conference of Black Mayors
Ideologies
Afrocentrism
Anarchism
Back-to-Africa movement
Black power
Capitalism
Conservatism
Garveyism
Leftism
Liberalism
Nationalism
Pan-Africanism
Patriotism
Populism
Radicalism
Socialism :
Civic/economic groups
Organizations
Association for the Study of African American Life and History
Black conductors
NAACP
National Black Chamber of Commerce
National Council of Negro Women
National Pan-Hellenic Council
National Urban League
TransAfrica
UNCF :
Sports
Negro league baseball
Athletic associations and conferences
Central (CIAA)
HBCU (HBCUAC)
Mid-Eastern (MEAC)
Southern (SIAC)
Southwestern (SWAC) :
Sub-communities
Multiethnic
African-American Jews
Afro-Puerto Ricans
Alabama Creole people
Black Indians
Black Seminoles
Mascogos
Blaxicans
Brass Ankles
Creoles of color
Dominickers
Freedmen
Great Dismal Swamp maroons
Melungeon
Carmel Indians
Redbone
Specific ancestries
Americo-Liberians
Creek Freedmen
Gullah
Merikins
Nova Scotians
Samaná Americans
Sierra Leone Creole
Sexual orientation
LGBT community :
Dialects and languages
English dialects
African-American English
African-American Vernacular English
Liberian English
Samaná English
Tutnese
Languages and other dialects
Gullah
Afro-Seminole Creole
Negro Dutch
Black American Sign Language :
Population
US states
Alabama
Arkansas
California
Florida
Georgia
Illinois
Indiana
Iowa
Kansas
Louisiana
Maryland
Mississippi
Nebraska
New York
North Carolina
Ohio
Oklahoma
Oregon
South Carolina
South Dakota
Tennessee
Texas
Utah
Virginia
US cities
Black mecca
List of neighborhoods
Atlanta
Baltimore
Boston
Chicago
Dallas-Fort Worth
Davenport
Detroit
Houston
Jacksonville
Kentucky
Lexington
Los Angeles
New York City
Omaha
Philadelphia
San Antonio
San Francisco
Historic places
District of Columbia
Florida
Georgia
Mississippi
Missouri
Omaha, Nebraska
North Carolina
South Carolina
Texas
West Virginia
Population count
US states and territories
US metropolitan areas
US cities
US communities
Places by plurality of population
Diaspora
Africa
Canada
France
Ghana
Israel
Liberia
Nova Scotia
Sierra Leone :
Prejudice
Racism
Black genocide
Race and ethnicity in the US census
Racism against Black Americans
Reparations for slavery
School segregation in the US
Unarmed African Americans killed by police officers
Stereotypes and media depictions
Blackface
Criminal stereotypes
Hollywood
Magical Negro
Minstrel show :
United States portal
Category
Index :
vte :
The National Urban League (NUL), formerly known as the National League on Urban Conditions Among Negroes, is a nonpartisan historic civil rights organization based in New York City that advocates on behalf of economic and social justice for African Americans and against racial discrimination in the United States. It is the oldest and largest community-based organization of its kind in the nation. Its current president is Marc Morial.

## History

The Committee on Urban Conditions Among Negroes was founded in New York City on September 29, 1910, by Ruth Standish Baldwin and Dr. George Edmund Haynes, among others. It merged with the Committee for the Improvement of Industrial Conditions Among Negroes in New York (founded in New York in 1906) and the National League for the Protection of Colored Women (founded in 1905), and was renamed the National League on Urban Conditions Among Negroes. Haynes served as the organization's first Executive Director.
In 1918, Eugene K. Jones took the leadership of the organization. Under his direction, the League significantly expanded its multifaceted campaign to crack the barriers to black employment, spurred first by the boom years of the 1920s, and then by the desperate years of the Great Depression.
In 1920, the organization took its present name, the National Urban League. The mission of the Urban League movement, as stated by the National Urban League, is "to enable African Americans to secure economic self-reliance, parity, power and civil rights." When the organization expanded its facilities to conduct more research in 1920, the new Department of Research came under the charge of Lillian Anderson Turner Alexander, a rising civil rights activist recruited by Jones.
Jones played a significant role in President Franklin D. Roosevelt's administration, taking leave from the League to head the Department of Commerce unit for the study of "Negro problems", and serving as part of a group of African-American advisors known as the "Black Cabinet".
In 1941, Lester Granger was appointed Executive Secretary and led the NUL's effort to support the March on Washington proposed by A. Philip Randolph, Bayard Rustin and A. J. Muste to protest racial discrimination in defense work and the military. A week before the March was scheduled to take place, President Roosevelt issued an executive order creating the Fair Employment Practices Committee.
In the wake of World War II, Black veterans who fought racial hatred overseas returned to the United States determined to fight it at home, giving new energy to the Civil Rights Movement. As hundreds of thousands of new jobs opened up, shifting the economy from industrial manufacturing to a white-collar, service-oriented economy, the National Urban League turned its attention to placing HBCU graduates in professional positions.
In 1961, Whitney Young became executive director amidst the expansion of activism in the civil rights movement, which provoked a change for the League. Young substantially expanded the League's fund-raising ability and made the League a full partner in the civil rights movement. In 1963, the League hosted the planning meetings of A. Philip Randolph, Martin Luther King Jr. and other civil rights leaders for the August March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. During Young's ten-year tenure at the League, he initiated programs such as "Street Academy", an alternative education system to prepare high school dropouts for college; and "New Thrust", an effort to help local black leaders identify and solve community problems. Young also pushed for federal aid to cities.
Clarence M. Pendleton, Jr., was, from 1975 to 1981, the head of the Urban League in San Diego, California. In 1981, U.S. President Ronald W. Reagan tapped Pendleton as the chairman of the United States Commission on Civil Rights, a position which he held until his sudden death in 1988. Pendleton sought to steer the commission in the conservative direction in line with Reagan's views on social and civil rights policies.
In 1994, Hugh Price was appointed as president of the Urban League.

### 21st century

In 2003, Marc Morial, former mayor of New Orleans, Louisiana, was appointed the league's eighth President and Chief Executive Officer. He worked to reenergize the movement's diverse constituencies by building on the legacy of the organization and increasing the profile of the organization.
The National Urban League is an organizational member of the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, which advocates gun control. In 1989, it was the beneficiary of all proceeds from the Stop the Violence Movement and their hip hop single, "Self Destruction".
In May 2017, the National Urban League produced the State of Black America TV Town Hall, which aired on TV One in 2017 and 2018. The TV Town Hall elevated social issues related to African Americans through an interview style format with celebrity guests. The show was executive produced by Rhonda Spears Bell.
In February 2018, the National Urban League launched a weekly podcast, For the Movement, which discusses persistent policy, social and civil rights issues affecting communities of color.
As of 2022, the National Urban League has 92 affiliates serving 300 communities, in 36 states and the District of Columbia. The National Urban League provides direct services in the areas of education, health care, housing, jobs, and justice—providing services to more than 3 million people nationwide. The organization also has a Washington Bureau that serves as its research, policy and advocacy arm on issues relating to Congress and the Administration.

### Lawsuit with the Trump Administration

On February 19, 2025, the National Urban League joined civil rights organizations National Fair Housing Alliance and the AIDS Foundation of Chicago in a lawsuit against the executive orders 14151, 14168, and 14173 of the Trump administration, on the grounds that these infringe upon civilians' rights to free speech and due process.

## State of Black America

The State of Black America is an annual report published by the league.

## Presidents

The presidents (or executive directors) of the National Urban League have been:
| Presidents | From | To | Background |
| George Edmund Haynes | 1910 | 1918 | social worker |
| Eugene Kinckle Jones | 1918 | 1940 | civil rights activist |
| Lester Blackwell Granger | 1941 | 1961 | civic leader |
| Whitney Moore Young, Jr. | 1961 | 1971 | civil rights activist |
| Vernon Eulion Jordan, Jr. | 1971 | 1981 | attorney |
| John Edward Jacob | 1982 | 1994 | civil rights activist |
| Hugh Bernard Price | 1994 | 2002 | attorney foundation executive |
| Marc Haydel Morial | 2003 | Current | attorney |