National Urban League (NUL)
The National Urban League (NUL) is a historic organization founded in 1910 to support Black migrants from the rural South seeking work in northern cities during the Great Northern Migration. Originally established to address urban conditions for African Americans, the League has evolved to assist the rural and urban poor across the United States. It operates through a centralized structure with a main headquarters in New York and numerous local units in major cities, each tailoring its initiatives to meet community-specific needs. The organization has a strong focus on political action, civil rights advocacy, and community development.
Throughout its history, particularly under the leadership of figures like Whitney M. Young, Jr., the NUL has played a critical role in promoting social justice, including significant involvement in the 1963 March on Washington. Today, it offers a wide array of programs, including job training, education services, and healthcare access, adapting its efforts to address contemporary challenges such as COVID-19 vaccination outreach. Additionally, the NUL has engaged younger generations through initiatives like the National Urban League Young Professionals. With a commitment to uplifting marginalized communities, the League continues to be a significant voice and resource in the fight for equity and opportunity in America.
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National Urban League (NUL)
The National Urban League was founded in 1910 as the National League on Urban Conditions Among Negroes, an organization that helped Black migrants coming from the rural South in the Great Northern Migration to find work and make transitions to living in northern cities. The league merged in 1911 with the Association for the Protection of Colored Women and the Committee for Improving the Industrial Conditions of Negroes in New York, both groups founded in 1906 to aid urban migrants, and adopted its shorter title by 1920. The emphasis of the organization has shifted over the years from serving Black workers in northern cities to assisting the rural and urban poor in all regions of the country, and from an educational, service, and investigational association to one involved in political action.
A nonmembership organization, the National Urban League has a centralized structure, with a main headquarters in New York and local units in major cities; the local units have their own boards and budgets and adapt national policies to local needs. The league maintains a bureau in Washington, DC, and ninty-two affiliate offices throughout the United States, including in major cities such as Akron, Ohio; St. Louis, Missouri; Baltimore, Maryland; Cincinnati, Ohio; Cleveland, Ohio; Jacksonville, Florida; Houston, Texas; Philadelphia, PA; Los Angeles, California; and Atlanta, Georgia. The national governing board is, according to organization bylaws, interracial.
The National Urban League also created a youth chapter, the National Urban League Young Professionals, which had over 10,000 members in sixty-four chapters nationwide in 2024.
From 1923 until 1948 the National Urban League published the influential magazine Opportunity, which, along with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People’s Crisis, also based in New York, was a voice for Black intellectuals, writers, and social reformers. From 1910 through the 1930s Depression, the league focused on services to those seeking jobs and housing, and lobbied to end discrimination in federal policies and the labor movement. The league grew in size and influence during World War II, when many thousands of Black people moved to northern industrial cities to do war-related work. The organization was conservative in its approach until the 1960s, when the severity of the problems of segregated housing, ghetto conditions, and inferior education called for more activist policies.
The league emerged as a major advocate for civil rights under the leadership of Whitney M. Young, Jr., who became its executive director in 1961. Under the influence of the Civil Rights and Black Power movements, Young and the National Urban League pursued active protest politics, including a sponsorship role in the 1963 March on Washington. Young’s successors, Vernon E. Jordan, Jr., and John Jacob, established several community-based improvement programs. These include street academies to aid high school dropouts in finishing school; job training and placement services in computer skills, law enforcement, and the construction industry; voter registration drives; a Business Development Program for Black businesspersons; and a National Consumer Health Education Program to supply health workers to local neighborhoods.
In 2003, the National Urban League appointed Marc H. Morial, a former mayor of New Orleans, as its president and chief executive officer. He oversaw a revitalization effort for the organization, including its flagship annual report, the State of Black America.
Each year, the National Urban League continues to assist millions of people with job placement, healthcare and educational services, home buying, and activism. The work of the organization continues to morph as needs change. For example, in 2020, the League helped people locate COVID-19 vaccinations and care, and during elections, affiliate branches often provide free or reduced-price bussing to and from polling centers.
Bibliography
Criss, Doug. “Lyft Is Teaming Up with the Urban League, TurboVote and Others to Offer Free and Half-Price Rides on Election Day.” CNN, 24 Aug. 2018, www.cnn.com/2018/08/24/politics/lyft-election-ride-trnd/index.html. Accessed 30 Oct. 2024.
"Mission and History." National Urban League. nul.org/mission-and-history. Accessed 30 Oct. 2024.
Moore, Jesse Thomas. A Search for Equality: The National Urban League, 1910–1961. Pennsylvania State UP, 1981.
“National Urban League.” The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute, kinginstitute.stanford.edu/national-urban-league. Accessed 30 Oct. 2024.
National Urban League of Young Professionals, nulyp.iamempowered.com/. Accessed 30 Oct. 2024.
Weiss, Nancy J. The National Urban League, 1910–1940. Oxford UP, 1974.
Wormser, Richard. "National Negro Business League." Rise and Fall of Jim Crow, PBS, www.thirteen.org/wnet/jimcrow/stories‗org‗business.html. Accessed 30 Oct. 2024.