By Marc H. Morial (To Be Equal #29) – As depression-era unemployment rates and a shrinking social safety net continue to plague urban America, the annual National Urban League census reveals that the organization’s 98 community-based affiliates served a record 2.6 million Americans in 2010 – a 25 percent increase over 2009. Last year the […]
Marc Morial
National Urban League Conference Makes Boston the Epicenter of War on Unemployment
By Marc Morial (To Be Equal #28) – From July 27-30, the National Urban League, in cooperation with the Urban League of Eastern Massachusetts, will bring our “Jobs Rebuild America” national conference to the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center. Urban League of Eastern Massachusetts CEO, Darnell Williams serves as host for this clarion call for […]
No Extortion for Debt Ceiling Vote
By Marc H. Morial (To Be Equal #27) – “We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation.” Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Rarely have the divisions in American politics been more clear – or more onerous. In less than a month, on August 2nd, if […]
Chenault and Immelt Push Jobs – by Marc H. Morial
(To Be Equal#25) “Our job is to do everything we can to ensure that businesses can take root and folks can find good jobs and America is leading the global competition that will determine our success in the 21st century.” President Barack Obama Last week, in Raleigh-Durham, the heart of North Carolina’s Research Triangle Park, […]
Proposed Mortgage Qualification Rule May End Homeownership As We Know It
Marc H. Morial (To Be Equal#23) – Homeownership, as we know it, could be a thing of the past if a proposed Qualified Residential Mortgage Rule (QRM) takes effect. In a letter I sent last week to the heads of the six federal agencies charged with developing risk retention regulations under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street […]
BEEP Prepares African American College Students for Jobs in Corporate America
By Marc H. Morial (To Be Equal #24) – Last week, June 8-11, more than 450 attendees, including 132 HBCU students, came together in Orlando, Florida for the National Urban League’s 42nd annual Black Executive Exchange Program (BEEP) Leadership Conference. BEEP, the National Urban League’s longest running direct service program, is a partnership involving the […]
New England “99ers” Need Unemployment Help and Jobs
Marc H. Morial (To Be Equal#21) – “It’s been tough. Very tough. I’m figuring I’m not getting any job. I have no experience, and I can’t get any experience without getting any jobs.” 23-year-old Darrell Davis of Springfield, MA Darrell Davis is just one of hundreds of discouraged, long-term unemployed people we met during last […]
Urban Jobs Act – A Powerful Weapon in the War on Unemployment
By Marc H. Morial (To Be Equal #19) – Last week, U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand of New York enlisted in the war on urban unemployment with the introduction of the Urban Jobs Act. Gillibrand’s Urban Jobs Act is the Senate version of House bill, H.R. 683, which was introduced earlier this year by New York […]
Housing Counseling Budget Cut – An Assault on the Middle Class
Marc H. Morial (To Be Equal#18) – If there was any doubt that middle and working class Americans are paying more than their fair share in the deficit reduction battles, the budget cuts recently enacted to prevent a government shutdown make it absolutely clear. Everything from Pell grants for college tuition to heating assistance for […]