In Cooperation with the Congressional Black Caucus, the National Urban League Launches Jobs and Justice Tour
National Urban League President and CEO Marc Morial and CBC Members Will Travel to Several Cities to Discuss Policies that Will Help the African-American Community
WASHINGTON, DC (August 22, 2018) – In cooperation with the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC), the National Urban League today launched a multi-city Jobs and Justice tour. During the tour, the National Urban League and its local affiliates will lead a series of town hall discussions about policies that will increase the upward social mobility of African-American families, and help ensure equal protection under the law. The town hall discussions will also focus on how African-Americans can use their voice and vote to change their communities and the country. CBC members will participate in these discussions.
“Whether we call it recovery, rehabilitation, or relief, it is past time for our government to demonstrate that very same commitment to our own struggling urban families and communities that was shown when Europe needed rebuilding after the World War II, Afghanistan following the War on Terror, and Wall Street during the financial crisis,” said Marc H. Morial, National Urban League’s President and CEO. “Urban communities and infrastructure have been shattered, not by bombs and tanks, but by malfeasance and indifference. The Jobs and Justice Act, which incorporates the Main Street Marshall Plan, is the legislative solution to strategically and comprehensively rebuild urban and rural America.”
The tour is named after the CBC’s comprehensive 1,300-page Jobs and Justice Act of 2018, which was introduced by CBC Chairman Cedric L. Richmond (LA-02) in May and includes the National Urban League’s Main Street Marshall Plan to address economic and social inequities and injustices, as well as individual pieces of legislation introduced by almost every member of the CBC. Both the National Urban League and the CBC hope the legislation will serve as a guiding light for any White House, major legislative caucus, or member of Congress who claims to care about Black, urban or rural communities.
“Some folks would have you believe that our community is doing well because African-American unemployment is at a historic low, which is the result of policies and programs implemented by the Obama Administration. But the African-American unemployment rate is not a good barometer of our community’s success. When African-Americans were slaves and sharecroppers, African-American unemployment was 0 percent, but I don’t think anyone would say that our community was doing well then,” CBC Chairman Cedric L. Richmond said. “As a result of racism and discrimination in our country, African-Americans still face a number of economic and social barriers that the federal government can and should help our community address since it was and still is complicit in building them. Although we have come a long way, we still have a long way to go, and the Jobs and Justice Act of 2018 will help us get there.”
Initial Tour Dates
Michigan
Host: Urban League of Detroit and Southeastern Michigan
- Event Information
- Thursday, August 23, 2018, 10:00 – 11:30 AM ET
- Luella Hannan Memorial Foundation Building (Hannan House), 4750 Woodward Ave, Detroit, MI 48201
- Participants
- Rep. Brenda Lawrence (MI-14)
- N. Charles Anderson, President and CEO, Urban League of Detroit and Southeastern Michigan
Pennsylvania
Host: Urban League of Philadelphia
- Event Information
- Friday, September 7, 2018, 5:00 – 7:00 PM ET
- PICO (Energy Hall), 2301 Market Street, Philadelphia, PA
- Participants
- Rep. Dwight Evans (PA-02)
- Andrea Custis, President and CEO, Urban League of Philadelphia
- National Urban League President and CEO Marc H. Morial
More cities will be announced in the coming weeks.
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Overview of the National Urban League’s Main Street Marshall Plan
African-Americans were disproportionately battered by the Great Recession and have benefited least from the fragile economic recovery that followed. The Black unemployment rate remains double the rate for whites. Black Americans continue to lag behind in wealth, income and homeownership, and across all educational levels.
The Main Street Marshall Plan: From Poverty to Shared Prosperity is a forward-leaning investment of $4 trillion over 10 years – $2 trillion for physical infrastructure such as roads, bridges and buildings, and $2 trillion for human development, such as education, job training and health insurance. The Main Street Marshall Plan is aimed not only at combating poverty but at promoting equality and eliminating disparities.
- The National Urban League’s Main Street Marshall Plan is included in Division A, Title I of the CBC’s Jobs and Justice Act of 2018. The full plan can be found here.
Overview of CBC’s Jobs and Justice Act of 2018
Jobs
- Invests $100 billion in public schools for physical and digital infrastructure improvements.
- Includes the 10-20-30 formula to direct additional resources to communities with a history of high poverty.
- Provides tax incentives for hiring young people, veterans, and the unemployed.
- Raises the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour.
- Expands access to the New Markets Tax Credit.
- Creates local incubators for small businesses and startups.
- Strengthens Pell Grant funding.
- Invests in emergency relief to address homelessness and increases access to mortgage financing.
- Modernizes the HBCU Capital Financing Program.
- Provides $7.5 billion dollars to upgrade water infrastructure systems.
Justice
- Eliminates mandatory minimums for federal drug offenses.
- Establishes a national commission on solitary confinement.
- Bans the box for ex-offenders.
- Gives ex-offenders access to Pell Grants, TANF, and SNAP.
- Abolishes the federal death penalty.
- Ends racial profiling.
- Decriminalizes marijuana and establishes a reinvestment fund for communities negatively impacted by the War on Drugs.
- Makes mid-term and presidential elections federal holidays.
- Restores the Voting Rights Act.
- Provides $7.5 billion dollars to upgrade water infrastructure systems.
- Clarifies the Dickey Amendment to allow federal research on the intersection of gun violence and mental health.
Contact: K. Kim Atterbury | (202) 629-5750 | katterbury@nul.org
