NEW YORK (January 16, 2026) — National Urban League President and CEO Marc H. Morial issued the following statement in response to Illinois adopting the Clean Slate Act:

“The National Urban League applauds Governor JB Pritzker, Representative Jehan Gordon-Booth, and Illinois legislators for enacting the Clean Slate Act—one of the most significant criminal justice reforms in the nation and a powerful affirmation of the belief that people deserve the chance to rebuild their lives.

Marc H. Morial 
President and CEO
National Urban League

“Loose and easy language about equality, resonant resolutions about brotherhood fall pleasantly on the ear, but for the Negro there is a credibility gap he cannot overlook. He remembers that with each modest advance the white population promptly raises the argument that the Negro has come far enough. Each step forward accents an ever-present tendency to backlash.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.

When he signed the legislation that made the birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr., a legal public holiday in 1983, President Ronald Reagan called the Civil Rights Movement a “just cause,” and said “as a democratic people, we can take pride in the knowledge that we Americans recognized a grave injustice and took action to correct it.”

By Jessica Gun, USA Today

President Donald Trump alleged in a recent interview that civil rights-era policies aimed at remedying historic patterns of racism resulted in White people being "very badly treated."

The president said the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which sought to end race-based discrimination and segregation and provide Black Americans with equal access to education and employment, “accomplished some very wonderful things, but it also hurt a lot of people."

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Marc H. Morial 
President and CEO
National Urban League

“The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.”
― George Orwell, 1984

“Don’t believe your lying eyes.” 

The quote, which originated in the Marx Brothers' movie Duck Soup in 1933, has been deployed in a variety of contexts by comics, authors, and orators, leaning into irony for nearly a century.

I never thought that I would see the day when the federal government would use it to defend the execution of an American citizen on American soil, in broad daylight, on camera. That is precisely what occurred on the morning of January 7th, when 37-year-old wife and mother, Renee Nicole Good, was shot at point-blank range by an immigration enforcement officer as she tried to leave the scene of a protest in Minneapolis.

NEW YORK and MINNEAPOLIS (January 8, 2026) — National Urban League President & CEO Marc H. Morial and Urban League Twin Cities President & CEO Marquita Stephens issued the following joint statement in response to the recent killing of an American citizen by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents:

“The killing of American citizens by ICE agents cannot and will not be tolerated. For more than 50 years, law enforcement policy has explicitly prohibited shooting at moving vehicles—a principle established in 1972 and widely recognized as best practice. ICE agents’ decision to ignore this standard represents a dangerous and unacceptable escalation of force, rooted in outdated and reckless tactics.