For nearly a century, the Urban League of Metropolitan Seattle (Seattle, WA) has stood as one of the region’s most enduring champions for Black families, evolving alongside the community it serves while expanding access to education, employment, housing and economic opportunity.

Now, as the organization celebrates its 95th anniversary, readers of The Seattle Medium have named the Urban League of Metropolitan Seattle the winner of the Best Nonprofit Organization (Large and Mid-Sized) category in the inaugural Best of the Best Northwest Readers’ Choice Awards, recognizing an institution whose legacy continues to grow.

Written By:

Hashley Heriveaux Jr | Affiliate Services Summer Advisor

For generations, civil rights advocates have fought to ensure that opportunity is not determined by race, income, or zip code. Today, that fight has entered a new arena. Access to reliable internet service and digital skills has become just as essential as access to quality education, stable employment, and affordable healthcare. Yet millions of Americans remain disconnected from the tools that increasingly determine who succeeds and who falls behind. The digital divide is not simply a technology issue. It is a poverty issue, a diversity issue, and a democracy issue.

Reflecting on July 4th. Frederick Douglass' searing speech is especially timely as our nation marks 250 years. Revisit 'What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?' | America at 250 is an America at a crossroads. Dive into our easy to use guide for more questions you should be asking your leaders today! | A major step forward. The Supreme Court confirmed what we already know: every child born in America is American. See what this ruling really means. | Down in New Orleans. See highlights as Marc Morial celebrated George Clinton's legacy and the anniversary of P-Funk Mothership landing in NOLA. The app is live! Download our #NULConf26 app to get the most up-to-date information about Nashville, powerful sessions, speakers, and more.

Marc H. Morial 
President and CEO
National Urban League
 

“The economic struggles of typical U.S. families deserve serious solutions, not political buzzwords. Unfortunately, the policies the Trump administration has undertaken are making Americans’ economic struggles harder, not easier.”   – Economic Policy Institute Chief Economist Josh Bivens

The current affordability crisis has not come about by accident. It is the predictable result of political choices that have made life easier for those at the top while leaving working families struggling to keep up with the rising costs of housing, healthcare, education, child care, groceries, and transportation.

The solution requires a different set of choices that put working people first.

#RECLAIMYOURVOTE with the National Urban League's Take Action app

Now’s the time to make a plan to #ReclaimYourVote.  Use your voice today to galvanize your tribe and community with the resources they need to navigate the voting process and ensure their voices are heard.

Download our NUL: TAKE ACTION app today and take steps towards reclaiming your vote!  

**************

NEW YORK (July 17, 2026) — National Urban League President and CEO Marc H. Morial issued the following statement in response to a U.S. district court ruling on the Digital Equity Act:

“Today’s ruling is a troubling addition to a growing line of decisions that acknowledge the existence of racial inequality while stripping government of the tools needed to address it. The decision to remove race and ethnicity from the Digital Equity Act repeats a dangerous judicial fiction: that recognizing a racial disparity is itself a form of racial discrimination.

"Generations of residential segregation, discriminatory lending, unequal infrastructure investment, employment exclusion, and disinvestment have created unequal access to affordable broadband, appropriate devices, digital skills, and the economic opportunities that flow from them.

In a direct response to a wave of local youth violence and the opioid epidemic, a coalition of St. Louis pastors and the Urban League are launching an initiative to distribute hundreds of free gun locks and Narcan kits directly through congregations.

Organizers say the effort—spearheaded by the Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis (St. Louis, MO) and a growing coalition of forty neighborhood churches—is a direct rejection of traditional, high-level political approaches to public safety.

“This does not self-regulate. What we see taking place does not fix itself,” said James Clark of the Urban League Division of Public Safety. “It’s not going to end behind the badge. It’s not gonna end at the ballot box, but it can end at the front door of the neighborhood church.”