Black History Month Highlight: Origin of the National Urban League Movement

“Let us work not as a colored people nor as white people for the narrow benefit of any group alone, but together, as American citizens, for the common good of our common city, our common country”

                                                                                                          -Ruth Standish Baldwin

On September 29, 1910, the Committee on the Urban Conditions Among Negros was founded in New York. The cofounders were Dr. George Edmund Haynes and Mrs. Ruth Standish Baldwin- he  a black male, and she a white woman. The diverse and interracial character of the League’s board was set from its first days. He was a social worker and educator. His passion for improving the social welfare of African Americans was first started when he became interested in the social problems affecting black immigrants from the South in 1906. Mrs. Ruth Standish Baldwin was a philanthropist who championed for the poor and disadvantaged, with a focus on the health and welfare of Negro migrants.

In 1911, the Committee on the Urban Conditions Among Negros merged with the Committee for the Improvement of Industrial Conditions Among Negros in New York (founded in New York in 1906) and the National League for the Protection of Colored Women (founded in 1905), to form the National League on Urban Conditions Among Negros (ULUCAN).  Dr. George Edmund Haynes served as its first executive director from 1910-1918. It was later shortened in 1920, to what it is fondly known as, the National Urban League (NUL).

The National Urban League is the nation’s oldest and largest community-based movement dedicated to empowering African Americans. The mission of the movement is to enable African Americans to secure economic self-reliance, parity, power, and civil rights.  The mission continues to be carried out through the efforts of over 100 local affiliates of the NUL in 35 states and the District of Columbia.

In 1999, the National Urban League Young Professionals (NULYP) was established in Houston, Texas. This branch of the NUL was created to develop the next generation of leaders. They support their affiliates by providing volunteer hours and raising dollars to support local UL programs and initiatives. Currently there are 53 chapters across the U.S.

-Breanna Myres

Empowering Communities.Changing Lives.

For more information please visit www.nul.org and www.nulyp.net