Title
To commemorate the National Urban League's 100 Years of Greatness and Accomplishments in the United States of America.
Body
WHEREAS, the National Urban League grew out of the lack Migrations movement to escape the brutal system known as Jim Crow from the South as well as to tackle the racial discrimination in the North; and
WHEREAS, the Committee on Urban Conditions Among Negroes was established on September 29th, 1910 in New York City by Mrs. Ruth Standish Baldwin and Dr. George Edmund Haynes and merged with predecessors such as Committee for the Improvement of Industrial Conditions Among Negroes in New York and the National League for the Protection of Colored Women to form the National League on Urban Conditions Among Negroes-eventually shortening the name to the National Urban League in 1920; and
WHEREAS, the organization strived to help black migrants from the brutal South, trained social workers, and worked in many other ways to bring educational and employment opportunities to blacks; and
WHEREAS, its research into the problems blacks faced in employment opportunities, recreation, housing, health and sanitation, and education is the reason for the League's fast growth, as by the closing of World War I, the organization had eighty-one staff members in thirty cities; and
WHEREAS, the League was able to expand its campaign to bring down the barriers to black employment, brought on by the economic boom of the 1920s, and then by the downturn of the Great Depression; and
WHEREAS, the efforts at reasoned persuasion were supported by boycotts against firms that refused to employ blacks, pressures on schools to expand vocational opportunities for young people, constant prodding of Washington officials to include blacks in New Deal recovery programs and a drive to get blacks into segregated labor unions; and
WHEREAS, the League during World War II, under Lester Granger, pushed to integrate trade unions and led the effort to support A. Philip Randolph's March on Washington Movement, fighting discrimination in defense work and in armed services, and was able to persuade five hundred companies to hold career conferences on the campuses of black colleges and place blacks in better jobs; and
WHEREAS, during the Civil Rights era, the League under Whitney M. Young, Jr. was a full supporter of the Civil Rights movement and brought out a domestic Marshall Plan, a program designed to close the enormous social and economic gap between black and white Americans, which influenced the discussion of the Johnson Administration's War on Poverty legislation; and
WHEREAS, after Young's death in 1971, the League, under new executive director Vernon E. Jordan, Jr., expanded its social services, became a channel for the federal government to establish programs and deliver services to aid urban communities, such as housing, health, education and minority business development; and
WHEREAS, John E. Jacob stepped in 1982 and from then to 1994 established several programs, many in honor of Whitney M. Young, and established the NULITES youth development program, spurring other programs that combat issues such as teen pregnancy and helping single female-led households; and
WHEREAS, in 1994, Hugh B. Price intensified the organization's work in education and youth development, individual and community-wide economic empowerment, and affirmative action; and
WHEREAS, from 2003, Marc H. Morial has worked to breathe new life into the movement's diverse constituencies by building on the strengths of the NUL's legacy and increasing the organization's profile locally as well as nationally; now, therefore
BE IT RESOLVED BY THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF COLUMBUS:
That we do hereby celebrate the National Urban League's one hundred years of service to the United States and its contributions to improve the lives of African Americans throughout the nation. The Council of the City of Columbus thanks the League and hopes for another hundred years of greatness and service.