Founded in 1911 in New York City, the National Urban League (NUL) is one of five civil rights organizations collectively known as the “Big Five.” The organization was founded to provide assistance to African Americans to further the dual tenets of economic and social justice.

Founded in 1910, the National Urban League counseled recent black migrants to urban areas in the North and South, assisted in the training of social workers for this population, and provided educational and increased employment opportunities in industry.

Founded in 1910 and headquartered in New York City, the National Urban League spearheads the efforts of its local affiliates through the development of programs, public policy research, and advocacy.

The NUL began with the merger of three smaller groups, The National League for the Protection of Colored Women, The Committee for Improving the Industrial Conditions for Negroes in New York, and the Committee on Urban Conditions Among Negroes in New York, all dedicated to helping Americans urban newcomers mainly from ...

The National Urban League logo features a red equals sign inside a red circle on a white background.

To enable and empower African-Americans and others in underserved communities to achieve their highest human potential and secure economic self-reliance, parity, power and civil rights.

It was during the presidency of Whitney M. Young, Jr. (1961–71), that the league emerged as one of the strongest forces in the American civil rights struggle.

National Urban League

The NAACP works to remove all barriers of racial discrimination through democratic processes. The national office was established in New York City in 1910 as well as a board of directors and president, Moorfield Storey, a white constitutional lawyer and former president of the American Bar Association.

From the beginning, the SCLC focused its efforts on citizenship schools and efforts to desegregate individual cities such as Albany, Georgia, Birmingham, Alabama, and St. Augustine, Florida. It played key roles in the March on Washington in 1963 and the Selma Voting Rights Campaign and March to Montgomery in 1965.

The NAACP-led Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, a coalition of civil rights organizations, spearheaded the drive to win passage of the major civil rights legislation of the era: the Civil Rights Act of 1957; the Civil Rights Act of 1964; the Voting Rights Act of 1965; and the Fair Housing Act of 1968.

The NAACP pledged “to promote equality of rights and eradicate caste or race prejudice among citizens of the United States; to advance the interest of colored citizens; to secure for them impartial suffrage; and to increase their opportunities for securing justice in the courts, education for their children, employment ...