Article I:

The Relevance of Being Relevant
 

By Arva R. Rice,
President & CEO, New York Urban League

This month is historic because it marks the anniversary of Barack Obama's first year in office.  It comes when Black folks are suffering from this economic downturn more than their white counterparts.  And on a personal note, this is my first Black History month as CEO of the New York Urban League.  So in keeping with these personal and national first I wanted to take a few minutes to talk to you on the subject of the Relevance of Being Relevant.
 
As CEO of a 90 year old civil rights organization, I am often asked if the United States still needs organizations dedicated to the needs of African-Americans.  I am often asked if a country that has Colin Powell, Oprah Winfrey and President Barack Obama needs organizations like the Urban League.  My response is always the same.  Until everyone has the wealth and respect of Oprah Winfrey, our communities need the New York Urban League.  Until every African-American male has access to a job that leads to career advancement - regardless of his interaction with the criminal justice system - than New York needs the Urban League.  Until every little girl and boy lives in a home with as many comforts and a school with as many educational options as Sasha and Maila, this nation needs the Urban League. 

As I mentioned before, I became CEO of the Urban League in April of last year.  After I had accepted the position, I began to tell co-workers, friends and family of the new opportunity.  It was uncanny that those folks in their 50s, 60s or 70s smiled broadly and told me their Urban League story.   Some got their first summer job at the League, while others had been mentored by Horris Morris or even Judge Wingate.   They congratulated me warmly and wished me the very best.  They were clearly pleased and proud that the torch was being passed to the next generation.  The struggle continues.  Now don’t let me get started on the young folk.  Some asked, “Do you really want to do that?”  Some asked if the Urban League was still open, but the last asked me “What’s the New York Urban League?”  What is the New York Urban league?  I said incredulously. 

Have you ever been to a hospital in New York and received treatment?  Sixty years ago the New York Urban League created a bi-racial commission to give Black people the opportunity to be treated and to work in New York hospitals.  Every time you walk into a hospital and see Black doctors and nurses.  Every time you receive treatment, THAT IS THE NEW YORK URBAN LEAGUE.

Have you ever seen the tapes of the March on Washington?  Have you seen the crowds of people packed on the Mall that day? Black folks and white folks huddled together united in their fight for justice and equality.  The Mall that was packed from end to end not only with busloads from the South.  Those buses not only rolled from Montgomery and Birmingham, they came from Bed-Stuy and Harlem, Jamaica, the South Bronx and the North Shore of Staten Island.  THAT IS THE NEW YORK URBAN LEAGUE.  

Did you have a chance to visit the Barack Obama exhibit at the Schomburg?   Did you see the beautiful pictures depicting his historic campaign? Members, staff and board members of the New York Urban League came together to buy the collection that became the Schomburg Library.  Every time you visit the Schomburg, THAT IS THE NEW YORK URBAN LEAGUE.

The New York Urban League served as a hub of community life for nearly 90 years, and we are committed to be here for the next 90 years.   Now is our time to make sure that we are addressing today's issues with those who are most in need, with strategies that are technologically advanced and meet people where they are.  It’s time to look past sagging jeans and see-through skirts and reach out to girls and boys who have never experienced living in a family let alone a village.  Today we must not risk become irrelevant to those who are most in need of our support.  We must embrace the relevance of being relevant – the relevance of being relevant.

For those of you in the back of the room, you are correct I am not that old.  In fact I am too young to have marched with King, protested with Medger Evers or organized with Bayard Rustin.  But even though the four little girls lost their lives before I came into it, my Mother made sure I knew the great shoulders that I stand on today.  I can remember my Mother taking me to exhibits that showed pictures of girls that did not look much older than me at the wrong end of a menacing dog, a fire hose - or more frightening still -a gun.  I can remember looking at those pictures and the crowds walking across bridges, being shuttled into buses on their way to jail, or marching arm in arm.   The picture were filled with strong, courageous people, but everyone from Memphis wasn’t in the picture.  All of Birmingham was not at the rally.  The truth is that while so many said they marched with King – they did not.  There were those who were invested in the status quo, those who did not see the relevancy of being relevant.  After seeing an exhibit or watching Eyes on the Prize, my question to my Mother was always the same, “Mommy would I have marched?”

Today, I stand before you because Coretta marched and Harriet drummed and a woman named Harriet Michel led.  It is my turn and my time to march to fight the fact that less than a third of Black and Latino students graduate with a Regent’s diploma in four years.  I march to fight the fact that 3 out of 4 public high school graduates who go to CUNY have to take remedial coursework.  For almost 40 years the New York Urban League has offered college scholarships to students, and I am marching today to help re-create our college prep programs and raise millions more that we can award to needy students.  I march so that the New York Urban League can provide employment training and placement so that the next generation can get their first job at the New York Urban League.  Today I march so that the New York Urban League can continue to be relevant in today’s world.  But if I march alone, I am going for a stroll.  So I hope that you will join me.

This Black History Month, there will be a number of specials on PBS and CNN (that has discovered Black people for some reason!).  There will be a special exhibit at the Schomburg, and your local library.  The choir at your church may have a special service, and I encourage you to participate in all of these activities.  But I also challenge you this Black History Month to sign up to mentor, to coach a sports team, to volunteer to teach a class at your local non-profit or school program.  I challenge you to be the one to tell the next generation about Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth and Adam Clayton Powell.  I encourage you to be the one to encourage this generation to pick up their marching shoes and dare to be relevant.   I encourage you this Black History Month to become relevant in the lives of a young child, a teenager with sagging jeans or a teenage girl who is hiding a need to be loved in lots of attitude.  If we do not do it, my brothers and sisters, who will?

Thank you again for listening.