New York, N.Y. - May 24,2007 - The National Urban League has joined with 11 regional affiliates in the tri-state New York City metropolitan area to present its Economic Empowerment Tour, the second stop in a tour launched last October in Pittsburgh, Pa.

Entitled "You, Your Money, Your Future," the 2-day event will take place in New York City on June 12 and in Newark, N.J. on June 13. It seeks to heighten awareness of economic disparities that exist between minorities and whites in the region and connect people real tools and resources that will help attendees 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 old age.

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. The league's work is now focused on closing this economic gap through programs and advocacy enabling better jobs, increased homeownership, greater entrepreneurship and enhanced financial literacy and the tour will connect people to those resources.

"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 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 our community faces in achieving equality in the United States is improving our bottom line. We need to equip ourselves with the tools and skills needed to raise our standard of living and close the economic divide existing between us and mainstream America," he added.

Participating affiliates include those from: New York City, Long Island and Westchester County in New York; Essex, Bergen, Morris, Union and Hudson Counties in New Jersey; and Hartford and southwestern Connecticut.

"For generations in the 20th Century, Ellis Island welcomed millions of immigrants looking for a new life in the land of opportunity. Years later, the New York City metropolitan area presents a mixed picture - that of great inequality and of great progress. The city is home to some of the best-off and worst-off African Americans in the nation. At one extreme is Queens County, nearly the only place in the nation where blacks surpass whites in annual median income. At the other extreme is Manhattan, where they lag behind by nearly $62,000 a year, the largest income gap in the United States," Morial said.

"Nowhere in America is the number of black-owned businesses higher than in New York - more than double its nearest competitor - Los Angeles. Yet, at the same time, nearly 46 percent of black New Yorkers are steered into high-cost high-interest mortgage loans, five times the rate of whites. And nearly a quarter of black applicants are denied home loans, double that for whites," he added.

The tour, which is made possible through the generous support of the Fannie Mae Foundation, GEICO and the Ford Motor Company, will feature a town hall meeting discussion featuring a panel of distinguished regional experts starting at 7:30 p.m., preceded by a resource fair at 4 p.m. A press reception will be held at both events at 6 p.m. outside the entrance of the resource fair.

On June 12, the New York City event will take place at Columbia University at Alfred Lerner Hall (for the resource fair) and Roone Arledge Auditorium (for the town hall meeting), which will be moderated by Bloomberg TV anchor Monica Bertran. It will also feature the following panelists: National Urban League President and CEO Marc H. Morial, New York City Economic Development Corporation President Robert Lieber, New York Urban League President Darwin Davis, GEICO's Vice President of Public Affairs Rynthia Rost, Ford Motor Credit Company's Director of Minority Dealer Operations Carlos Treadway and Sheena Wright, president and CEO of the Abyssinian Development Corporation.

On June 13, the Newark event, which will be moderated by CNBC financial correspondent Sharon Epperson, will take place at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey's Oral Health Pavilion (resource fair and town hall). The town hall will feature: Newark Mayor Cory Booker, Essex County Urban League President and CEO Vivian Cox Fraser, Black Enterprise Magazine Editor-in-Chief Alfred A. Edmonds, Jr., Essence Magazine Editorial Director Susan Taylor with Morial and Treadway.

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.

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

With the 2008 presidential campaign already in swing and new leadership installed on Capitol Hill, the tour is also designed to provoke U.S. decision-makers to put the issue of economic inequality on the national agenda.

"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 Ricky Clemons at 212-558-5371 or rclemons@nul.org .

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