Marc Morial, the president and CEO of the National Urban League, presides this week over the 100th anniversary conference of the civil rights and economic development organization. Morial, a former mayor of New Orleans, took time before the conference, which is being held in Washington, D.C., to talk about the organization’s civil rights, economic development and education agenda.
Diverse: Why was Washington, D.C. chosen to host the National Urban League’s centennial conference?
Marc Morial: The choice of Washington D.C. for our conference is for multiple reasons. The first reason is that it is the nation’s capital, the place where public opinion is shaped and made. Number two, it is a great city that everyone always wants to visit. For a conference, it’s excellent. Thirdly, it’s a great place which will attract first-class speakers and panelists, which is always a critical part of a conference.
A lot of our focus at this conference is the elevation and promotion of our new “I Am Empowered” campaign, which is the campaign that we have launched to set goals for the nation that should be accomplished in the 21st century.
Diverse: Can you say more about those goals?
Marc Morial: Let me lay them out for you. The campaign revolves around four goals.
The first goal is every for American child to become ready for college, work and life. It is focused on getting young people prepared for college and the world of work. When we look across the landscape, we see a low high school graduation rate amongst African-American kids, but also a low graduation rate across the board. That is affecting the social and economic fabric of the nation, but particularly that of urban communities and especially urban African-American and Latino communities.
