DOCUMENTING THE STRUGGLE FOR OPPORTUNITY
The National Urban League’s Traveling Exhibit Depicts 90 Years of Civil Rights History

New York, NY, Feb. 20, 2001–The National Urban League, in celebration of its 90^th year, is launching a traveling exhibit that showcases the high points of the organization’s involvement in the civil rights movement. From Feb. 21 through May 31, the exhibit will be on view to the general public at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, in the Center’s American Negro Theatre.

The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture is located at 515 Malcolm X Boulevard and 135^th Street in New York City.

History on Display
"The story of the National Urban League is one rich in history, hope, and profound imagery," said National Urban League president Hugh B. Price.

"Using a collection of archived photographs, documents and other materials, we have created a moving tribute to our organization which helps tell our story in a thought-provoking and informative manner."

Comprised of eight panels dedicated to different Urban League areas of expertise–housing, health and social welfare, employment and job training, research, conferences, and influencing decision makers–the centerpiece of the League’s exhibit illustrates the organization’s history, including its origins, a brief summary of which follows:

When the U.S. Supreme Court declared its approval of segregation in the 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson decision, the brutal system of economic, social and political oppression the White South sent African Americans to the North in droves.

Those newcomers to the North soon discovered they had not escaped racial discrimination. Excluded from all but menial jobs in the larger society, victimized by poor housing and education, and inexperienced in the ways of urban living, many lived in terrible social and economic conditions.

Still, in the degree of difference between South and North lay opportunity, and that African Americans clearly understood.

But to capitalize on that opportunity, they would need help. This was the foundation for establishing the Committee on Urban Conditions Among Negroes on September 29, 1910 in New York City. Central to the organization’s founding were two remarkable people: Mrs. Ruth Standish Baldwin and Dr. George Edmund Haynes, who would become the Committee’s first executive secretary.

A year later, the Committee merged with the Committee for the Improvement of Industrial Conditions Among Negroes 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 Negroes. The name was later shortened to the National Urban League.

About the Schomburg Center and the National Urban League
The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture is a national research library devoted to collecting, preserving and providing access to resources documenting the experiences of peoples of African descent throughout the world.

The Urban League is the nation’s oldest and largest community-based movement devoted to empowering African Americans to enter the economic and social mainstream. The National Urban League, headquartered in New York City, spearheads the nonprofit, nonpartisan movement, while Urban League affiliates operate in more than 100 cities in 34 states and the District of Columbia.