Achieving a century of progress is not easy, but the Los Angeles Urban League (LAUL) defied the odds by celebrating its 100th anniversary this year. Founded in 1921, the heralded organization has made a huge impact for the last 10 decades by promoting business opportunities, training and development and coalition building on behalf of African Americans.
To commemorate the centennial milestone, LAUL kicked-off its speakers panel on February 27, which focused on “100 Years of Black History in Los Angeles.” Michael Lawson, LAUL president/CEO, hosted a panel of community leaders to discuss the status of African American success in both the city and nation and how those efforts assist LAUL’s mission to empower communities and change lives.
The panel featured Pamela Bakewell, COO and executive vice president of The Bakewell Company; Sandra Evers-Manley, vice president of Global Corporate Responsibility at Northrup Grumman and president of the Black Hollywood Education and Resource Center; and the Rev. James Lawson, renowned civil rights activist, architect of non-violent protest and pastor emeritus of Holman United Methodist Church. Beverly White, NBC4 reporter, moderated the forum and Ashley McCullough, president of LAUL Young Professionals, facilitated the question and answer session.
White opened the discussion by acknowledging the many accomplishments of LAUL and asking the panelists for ways to sustain and share the organization’s history. Bakewell responded that educating our youth was critical so that “the next generation does not take for granted what we have” in terms of the accomplishments thus far of the Black community.
“In order for the Urban League’s legacy to go on, our young people really have to grab hold of our history and understand it and want to absorb it in order for them to develop their own legacies,” stressed Bakewell. “Young people really need an understanding of the past in order to develop their own strategies.”
LAUL’s Lawson tied the organization’s sustainability to its ability to encourage the support of Black businesses. “Yes, we have to continue doing job training, but we have to move more into entrepreneurship in every area. We want to re-create Greenwood – a Black Wall Street,” he said, referring to the thriving African American community in Tulsa, Oklahoma, which was destroyed by Whites in 1921.
“That is our goal. That is our focus. We want a situation where a dollar dropped in our community stays in our community,” Lawson explained. “The example that I use is Koreatown and I have all of the respect in the world for what they have done in Los Angeles. A dollar dropped in Koreatown stays there for 50 days. Our goal is to get back to what our forefathers were already doing with Greenwood and go beyond!”
Diversity, equity and inclusion were the focus of the question posed to Evers-Manley by White, who inquired, “How can LAUL influence better outcomes in corporate America,” in regards to the hiring and promotion of Blacks. Evers-Manley answered that the community must demand that African Americans are among the decision-makers.
“When it comes to promotions, hiring, development and compensation, we have got to make sure that when you see African Americans present, that we are equal in every sense of those jobs as well as salaries. What we need from the Urban League is to make sure that we are present in corporate America and that we hold corporate America accountable when it comes to hiring and investment in our communities, businesses, nonprofits and educational institutions,” insisted Evers-Manley.
The Rev. Lawson urged LAUL to continue to build alliances with other groups to ensure its longevity. Recalling the environment he faced upon coming to L.A. in 1974, the pastor…