New York, N.Y. - November 26, 2007 - The National Urban League has joined with the Houston Area Urban League to present its Economic Empowerment Tour in Houston, Texas, the fourth stop in a tour launched last October in Pittsburgh, Pa.

Entitled "You, Your Money, Your Future," the one-day event, which will take place on Thursday, December 6 at the AT&T Conference Center at Minute Maid Park, seeks to heighten awareness of economic disparities that exist between minorities and whites in the metropolitan area and connect people with real tools and resources that will help them improve their financial situation on all fronts - from landing a better-paying job to owning their own home to business development to building a nest egg for retirement.

In the 2007 State of Black of America, the National Urban League found that the economic status of African Americans is just 57 percent of that of white Americans, when comparing such factors as income, unemployment, homeownership, business ownership, median net worth and poverty rates. According to a recent study by the Economic Mobility Project, African Americans have actually lost ground in terms of household income since the 1970s.

The League's work is focused on closing this economic gap through programs and advocacy enabling better jobs, increased homeownership, greater entrepreneurship and enhanced financial literacy.

"There is no doubt that economic empowerment is at the core of the 21st century civil rights movement. In the 1950s and 1960s, African Americans and other minorities made great strides on numerous fronts. The Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act paved the way for greater political and civic participation. Affirmative Action opened the doors of the nation's educational institutions and corporations," said Marc H. Morial, president and CEO of the National Urban League.

"The final challenge we face in achieving equality in the United States is improving our bottom line. We need to equip ourselves with the tools and skills required to raise our standard of living and close the economic divide existing between minorities and mainstream America," he added.

The tour, which is made possible through the generous support of Freddie Mac, Ford Motor Company and the Fannie Mae Foundation, will feature a town hall meeting discussion with a panel of distinguished regional experts, starting at 7:30 p.m. It will be preceded by a resource and career fair, starting at 1 p.m., and workshops on housing, small business development and job readiness, starting at 2 p.m. A press conference will be held at 2:30 p.m., and a networking reception will occur from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m..

The resource fair provides one-stop shopping for attendees interested in finding new jobs, purchasing their own homes, starting their own businesses or building a nest egg for retirement. Exhibitors will include banks, credit unions, homeownership organizations and many others who will be available to cover topics ranging from understanding credit to how to obtain mortgages to home maintenance.

The town hall will feature: 1) author Carla Cargle of One Wealth Builders; 2) Edward Pringle, the director of the Department of Housing and Urban Development's Houston field office; 3) Tracye McDaniel, executive vice president and COO for the Greater Houston Partnership; 4) Carmen Watkins, senior vice president of the Houston Area Urban League; as well as representatives of Ford Motor Company and Freddie Mac. NUL president and CEO Marc H. Morial as well as NUL Board of Trustees' Chairman John Hofmeister of Shell Oil Company will be present also.

In Houston, blacks and Hispanics earn 54 percent of what whites earn, according to 2006 U.S. Census Bureau estimates. More than one-third of whites hold college degrees or above, more and more a prerequisite for professional jobs, compared to 20 percent of blacks and 10 percent of Hispanics.

These disparities in educational attainment are played out in the city's job market, where the combined percentage of blacks and Hispanics in low-paying service industry and laborer jobs is nearly twice that of blacks and Hispanics employed in professional-level and above positions (60 percent vs. 31 percent), according to Equal Employment Opportunity Commission statistics. In the professional arena, whites occupy nearly 46 percent of jobs, compared to 18 percent for blacks and 13 percent for Hispanics.

"If blacks and Hispanics in Houston and elsewhere are to catch up with mainstream America economically, they'll need to obtain the education and skills required to land professional jobs or else they'll be left behind," Morial said.

The NUL president first announced the Economic Empowerment tour at the 2006 National Urban League conference in Atlanta. During his keynote speech, he told a 500-plus audience in Ebenezer Baptist Church that the civil rights struggle had not ended - it had only changed.

"The need for economic empowerment is not exclusive to the African American community. Americans of all walks of life, colors, religions and economic background are feeling the pinch of the ever-widening gap between the haves and have-nots in this nation," Morial said. "In light of the competitive global economy, we owe it to our future generations to stand as role models of economic empowerment to encourage them to prepare themselves for the more prosperous future possible."

For more information about the tour or to set up an interview with Mr. Morial, contact Adrien Seybert at 212-558-5315 or aseybert@nul.org.