MLK Observance. Don't miss Marc Morial's keynote speech at the Calvary Baptist Church in New Jersey on Monday! Follow updates on social media (@MarcMorial) | MLK Day. One way to honor Dr. King on his 91st birthday is to participate in Day of Service. Find an opportunity to serve your local community. | Hate crimes and Jewish-Black tensions. In the wake of the anti-Semitic attack at a Rabbi’s home in New York, it’s time to put aside our differences and come together. | Remembering James Buford. He spent over 25 years fighting for economic empowerment as head of the Urban League of St. Louis. More on his legacy. | Time is ticking. January 31st is the last day to save before registration prices go up for this year's National Urban League Conference. Don’t miss out! | What's new in DC? From impeachment to Oscars So White and the campaign trail, there’s a lot happening in the news. Washington Bureau Insider has the latest!

Marc H. Morial 
President and CEO
National Urban League
 
“The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it. Through violence you may murder the liar, but you cannot murder the lie, nor establish the truth. Through violence you may murder the hater, but you do not murder hate. In fact, violence merely increases hate.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.

A report that hate crimes surged in America’s five largest cities last year has broken just as we prepare to honor the nation’s best-known victim of a hate crime.

The Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino, found that hate crimes were at their highest level since September 11, 2001, in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, with the Jewish community being the most frequent target in all five of the cities.

With Trump’s impeachment, Senate should not even consider Brasher nomination

A pillar of the civic community, James H. Buford mingled with both corporate executives and civil rights activists.

He was “as comfortable in the suite as on the street,” Marc Morial, president and CEO of the National Urban League, said on Saturday at Buford’s funeral.

Hundreds filed into St. Alphonsus “Rock” Church in the Grand Center neighborhood on Saturday to pay tribute to Buford, the longtime head of the Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis (St. Louis, MO).

Buford, who led the organization here from 1985 until his 2013 retirement, is credited with reinvigorating a sleepy, docile chapter in St. Louis and turning it into the Urban League’s “best affiliate in the country,” Morial said, and “I dare say one of the strongest and most impactful community service organizations anywhere in America.”

Area leaders from SMUD (Sacramento Municipal Utility District), a community-owned electric service, the Sacramento Promise Zone collaborative, Sacramento Black Chamber of Commerce, Greater Sacramento Urban League (Sacramento, CA), the Sacramento Kings, Baker Energy Team, UC Davis and Spotlight Solar have partnered together to create a workforce development project designed to increase the use of solar in public places.

The project aims to install solar trees, manufactured by Spotlight Solar, at up to 11 locations within Sacramento. Locations include GSUL, the Simmons Community Center and a site within the Twin Rivers Unified School District.

Organizers, sponsors, and community partners joined together in a ceremony at Girard College on January 8 to announce plans for the upcoming 25th annual Greater Philadelphia Martin Luther King Day of Service. Girard College will serve as the region’s signature project site for the eleventh successive year. 

Founder and director Todd Bernstein, who is also president of Global Citizen, announced that a national record of more than 150,000 volunteers are expected to participate in more than 1,800 community service projects throughout the region on Monday, January 20, the King federal holiday. 

The Greater Philadelphia King Day of Service includes Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware.  Participants will include students of all ages from public, private, and parochial schools, colleges, senior citizens, community, religious, civic and non-profit organizations, businesses, military veterans, AmeriCorps members, elected officials and families. 

The Martin Luther King Jr. holiday in Madison, Jan. 20, marks the 25th anniversary of the day of service that will celebrate the civil right’s leader’s life and legacy. Here in Madison, the MLK Day Youth Call to Service is a chance for young people throughout Dane County to have a fun day in Dr. King’s memory while they dedicate themselves to service.

The Urban League of Greater Madison (Madison,WI) has been involved with the MLK Youth Service Day for decades and has had various partners through the year. On Monday, Jan. 20, 12:30-5 p.m. at Madison Public Library in downtown Madison they will be inviting middle and high school youth across Dane County to attend the MLK Day Youth Call to Service.