Urban League of Greater Cleveland plans to cease operations…?
“In a phone call placed today (12/21/09) to the Greater Cleveland Urban League, we find out the agency is still open – in spite of this May 19, 2009 article. Sources tell IBNN this Urban League like many more across the United States suffer from the same lack of fund-raising, processes and development – like the one in Minneapolis. Could this be the fate of our Minneapolis Urban League?”
Also read Star Parkers, “Gospel of dependence from National Urban League” – I want to show the side of black America for which we ourselves are responsible and which really point to where our problems lie.
Originally By SHANNON MORTLAND in Crain’s Cleveland Business 2:36 pm, May 19, 2009
After 92 years, the Urban League of Greater Cleveland plans to close its doors for good on May 29.
The nonprofit, which provides various programs to help African-Americans enter the economic and social mainstream, announced today that it will suspend all programming on May 22 and will cease operations on May 29. The Urban League currently employs 15 people, down from 30 in 2002. Read more
Minneapolis Urban League lays off more critical employees – the campaign continues…Donny Allen for President/CEO of the Minneapolis Urban League
“Cheryl Morgan-Spencer and I never saw eye-to-eye. But Ms. Spencer had her own way of doing things. She was a critical and important part of the Minneapolis Urban Leagues governmental engagement piece. Ms. Morgan-Spencer has established a releationship with the folks at the State Capitial that R.Scott Gray and the current board will never achieve.”
By Donald W. R. Allen,II – Editor in Chief/IBNN and USA Radical Black
Minneapolis, MN (IBNNNEWS)…On Friday, December 11, 2009 it was reported that the Minneapolis Urban League had laid off 3 more employees. IBNN wishes them the best and asks them to hold on to their dreams. Let’s do the math. The MUL Board of Directors cannot hold on to the real estate at the corner of Penn and Plymouth Avenue North with a “skeleton crew” inside the building.
Earlier this year, the Minneapolis Urban League hosted a community forum with the two finalists for the position of President/CEO of the Minneapolis Urban League. R. Scott Gray and Pamela Coaxum (Tucker) were seated at the long table in front of community members.
Insight News editor in chief and MUL board member Al McFarlane moderated the forum, asking participants to write questions on an index card to be read by Mr. McFarlane to the candidates. A funny thing happened to the cards on the way to the podium – “they didn’t get read.”
What I’m trying to say, if some of the questions that were written down were asked, it wouldn’t have mattered, R. Scott Gray and the usual suspects in north Minneapolis had already decided that Gray would be the new President of the Minneapolis Urban League.
Former Minneapolis Urban League board member Roxanne Givens, who was removed from the MUL board of directors in a banana republic process, consistently asked the MUL board to follow bylaws, which for the most part fell on deaf ears. Read about Ms. Givens in the stories: “Minneapolis Urban League Klan removes Roxanne Givens from Board” -June 17, 2009 and “National Urban League maintains silence in governance”-June 18, 2009.
R. Scott Gray was already tainted from his dealings with the Stairstep Foundation and Alfred Babington-Johnson. Johnson, who was invited by Gray to the Madison Urban League for a groundbreaking ceremony where he was tapped as the “keynote speaker” raised eyes of community stakeholders and finalist Pamela Coaxum.
Coaxum, saw the writing on the wall and on April 27, 2009, withdrew her name from consideration. Read the full story here.
While R.Scott Gray talked about “Leveraging the MUL property for funding,” it was apparent that this dude had no clue about business, real estate or the Helmsley Rule-Harry B. Helmsley (March 4, 1909 – January 4, 1997) was a real estate mogul who built a company that became one of the biggest property holders in the United States who always kept one property free and clear of debt.
My point is, the Minneapolis Urban League employees and the community have suffered enough at the hand of the organizations management and board of directors.
While the community suffers, the board sits passively, doing nothing rather than undertaking a fundamental re-structuring and getting down to business, which would allow it to fulfill its mission.
My vision for the Minneapolis Urban League is fueled by my passion and enthusiasm for the organization and the community it was established to serve. In addition to developing new funding streams, we need to look to community engagement, partnering with other established, successful organizations, and focusing on a host of other issues that I discuss in my 3-year plan to reorganize and revitalize the MUL.
Congressman Ellison – “Where are you?” National Urban League Writes National Leaders on Behalf of 27 Million Underemployed Americans!
Today at 11:35 a.m. on Facebook, the National Urban League delivered the following message:
The below letter outlining National Urban League’s plan for putting Americans back to work was sent to the following National Leaders:
Mr. Lawrence Summers, Director, National Economic Council
Honorable Harry Reid, Senate Majority Leader, U.S. Senate
Honorable Nancy Pelosi, Speaker, U.S. House of Representatives
Honorable Barbara Lee, Chair, Congressional Black Caucus, U.S. House of Representatives
November 24, 2009
Dear National Leaders,
I am writing to you on behalf of the over 27 million underemployed Americans in desperate need of full-time employment. This includes not only the 
unemployed, but also the marginally attached and those working part-time for economic reasons, all of whom are struggling to make ends meet during these difficult economic times. As you are well aware, the news that in October, the national unemployment rate exceeded ten percent for the first time since the early 1980s was a sobering wake-up for the leadership of this country even to the point of soliciting a call for a Jobs Summit to be held after the Thanksgiving holiday. While I applaud the Administration for publicly acknowledging the gravity of our nation’s employment situation, I would add that double-digit unemployment has been a reality for communities of color since last summer –for African Americans since August, 2008 and for Latinos since February, 2009.
As President and CEO of the National Urban League, the nation’s oldest and largest community-based movement devoted to empowering African Americans to enter the economic and social mainstream, I have firsthand knowledge of the tremendous obstacles these families have been facing, not just since national unemployment reached 10.2% in October, but for over a year now. In fact, demand for workforce development, business development and housing counseling services through the Urban League’s more than 100 affiliates located in 35 cities and the District of Columbia increased by 74 percent between 2006 and 2008. Our local affiliates are on the front lines of this jobs crisis and witness the devastating impact it is having on the individuals and families that walk through their doors. In response, the National Urban League went on record last fall drawing attention to the deepening unemployment crisis in urban America and calling for a second stimulus plan that would invest directly in job creation and training for the very communities we interact with and serve every day.
It is now a year later, and I am again calling on our nation’s leaders to invest in a long overdue plan for putting urban America back to work that is targeted, temporary and timely. The National Urban League’s Plan for Putting Americans Back to Work meets these criteria. Targeted because it provides solutions for communities with the highest rates of unemployment and the long-term unemployed who often face the greatest barriers to getting a job the longer they are without one. Temporary in that the recommended investments require less than a three year commitment. Timely because the bulk of the plan involves direct job creation as a means of bringing recovery to those most in need more quickly.
Most economists agree that the pace of recovery will be slow. Yet, the individuals to which this plan is targeted are often the last to experience the effects of even a more rapid economic recovery. Therefore, the National Urban League’s Plan for Putting Americans Back to Work is a comprehensive six-point plan to make a direct investment of $168 billion over 2 years to address the most urgent needs of American families in economic crisis by investing in direct job creation, job training for the chronically unemployed, greater access to credit for small businesses and additional counseling relief for those caught in the backlog of the foreclosure process. The plan also proposes tax incentives for clean energy equipment manufacturers who employ individuals in the targeted communities. The plan proposes to do these things in the following ways:
1. Fund Direct Job Creation by offering financial support to cities, counties, states, universities, community colleges and non-profit community based organizations to hire the personnel necessary to provide critical services in communities across the nation. Eligibility for support will be based on local unemployment rates with a focus on the long-term unemployed. At least twice in American history, the government has responded to high rates of unemployment with investments in direct job creation – the 1935 Works Progress Administration, when nearly one-fourth of the labor force was out of work, and the Emergency Jobs and Unemployment Assistance Act of 1974, which established Title VI of CETA as a temporary countercyclical employment program at a time when unemployment was quickly approaching 9 percent. We propose an investment of $150 billion to create 3 million jobs, a number that represents only half of the current unemployed with a high school diploma or less.
2. Expand and Expedite the Small Business Administration’s Community Express Loan Program through a reduction of the interest rate to 1 percent targeted for those businesses located in areas where the local unemployment rate exceeds the state average. A ten-fold expansion of the program (from $1 billion to $10 billion) should make credit available to an additional 50,000 small businesses nationwide.
3. Create Green Empowerment Zones in areas where at least 50 percent of the population has an unemployment rate that is higher than the state average. Manufacturers of solar panels and wind turbines that open plants in high unemployment areas will, for a period of three years, be eligible for a zero federal income tax rate and a zero capital gains tax under the condition that they hire and retain, for a minimum of three years, at least half of their workforce from the local area.
4. Expand the Hiring of Housing Counselors Nationwide by investing $500 million to fund housing counseling agencies nationwide to help delinquent borrowers work with their loan servicers to secure more affordable mortgages. Over the past 18 months more than $400 million in federal funds have been invested by the Administration to help mitigate the mortgage crisis through housing counseling and, according to a recent report by the Urban Institute, borrowers facing foreclosure are 60% more likely to hold onto their homes if they receive counseling and receive loan modifications with average monthly payments $454 lower than those who did not see counselors.
5. Expand the Youth Summer Jobs Program for 2010 by investing $5-7 billion to employ 5 million teens. While the unemployment rate for African-American youth is over 40 percent, the employment population ratio makes clearer the desperate situation faced by many urban youth. Since the late 1990s, this number has declined from a high of 33 percent down to 15 percent, and labor force participation for this group is now at a record low of 26 percent. A critical factor in eliminating racial and socio-economic disparities in unemployment is providing a solid foundation upon which African American youth can build positive future labor market expectations and experiences.
6. Create 100 Urban Jobs Academies to Implement an Expansion of the Urban Youth Empowerment Program (UYEP) to employ and train the chronically unemployed. UYEP, a four year demonstration project created in partnership with the U.S. Department of Labor in 2004, is a youth career preparation initiative designed for at-risk, out-of-school, and adjudicated youth and young adults between the ages of 18 and 24. With 27 Urban League affiliate sites and a total of $29.3 million, the program served 3,900 youth, 65 percent of whom either had job placements (paying an average wage of $9.32/hour) or completed their high school diploma or GED. Two hundred participants were placed in postsecondary schools or college upon completion of their secondary education. Scaling this program up to 100 sites would more than triple the program at a cost of $108.5 million.
At a time of the year when we traditionally give thanks and prepare to share generously with those around us, the American people are both frustrated and disappointed. When the financial industry was hemorrhaging, there was great urgency in devising the TARP plan for its rescue. Despite the ambivalence of most Americans with regards to spending billions of dollars to bail out the very businesses they felt had previously taken advantage of them, they understood the need to take swift and deliberate action to avoid a major national, or even global, financial crisis. We ask that the same urgency be given to the people experiencing a personal financial crisis in cities throughout this country. Recognizing the tremendous amount of work that is required to implement a plan of this magnitude in the most efficient and beneficial manner, I make myself available to meet with you to discuss the ideas proposed herein.
Sincerely,
Marc H. Morial
President and Chief Executive Officer
National Urban League
The Minneapolis Urban League in trouble…layoff’s and program doors shut next?
IBNN Editors Note: Residents of Minneapolis should read closely the messages sent out in the local Black press that attempt to position this organization as one on the move up, when in fact troubles continue to linger. IBNN has written favorable stories and not-so favorable stories about the Minneapolis Urban League (MUL). Since the Minneapolis Urban League is a membership organization, under the color of law, how will the MUL handle the possible over-throw of the current board to protect “the membership’s $16 million dollar investment on the corner of Penn and Plymouth Avenue North?” If you recall – it was the Minneapolis Urban League management who decided to release great employees in favor of routing dollars to ACORN home foreclosure counseling, among other things. So far the National Urban League has not returned one call to IBNN in over a year…
Under the Minnesota Law – “We” (members in good standing) have the sole responsibility to seek out competent board members and management to continue the organizations ongoing commitment to the community.
Originally posted in The Minneapolis Story
At 5:15 p.m., today, Thursday, 9-17-09, Minneapolis Urban League Branch President Scott Gray announced, in closed session, the new austerity: 10% salary reduction across the board; termination of ten employees within 30 days; and an indication that the staff of the Urban League Street Academy would go on part time employee status (thus losing their benefits).
Ever since the sell-outs kicked Nellie Stone Johnson and me (Ron Edwards) out 20 years ago, when I was the President of the Urban League with 118 employees, they have cannibalized the organization, reducing it from the 118 employees then to what will be less than 20 employees now.
We show how this got started in Chapter 14 of The Minneapolis Story. (The Book)
NAACP Celebrates 100…Continue to R.I.P., there’s a lot of Crap going on out here…where you guys at?”
In Minnesota the NAACP is virtually invisible. While trying to build capacity, the local chapter has been plagued by mismanagement of people, places and things to include funds. The video below is a prime example of how the NAACP is viewed and the level of disrespect directed towards the organization and Black people as a whole. Sometimes you wonder who is responsible for the catastrophic failure of Black organizations (locally and nationally) – sometimes all you have to do is look at the brothers or sisters sitting at the table…
The following story about the NAACP was sent to IBNN. Sound familiar? We didn’t think so…
NAACP Celebrates 100 Years…
Founded on February 12, 1909 – the NAACP is the nation’s oldest, largest and most widely recognized grassroots-based civil rights organization. It’s more than half-million members and supporters throughout the United States and the world are the premier advocates for civil rights in their communities, conducting voter mobilization and monitoring equal opportunity in the public and private sectors. Read more
The Real History of the Urban League is somewhat different than what the Minneapolis Urban League represents
“With the uncovering of alleged felony convictions for one of the Minneapolis Urban League finalist and the process that has been less-then transparent, IBNN also alleges there is a high level employee at the Minneapolis Urban League that was convicted of Welfare Fraud and Theft (felony) and continues to make decisions at a Human Resource level.” Read more
Rev. Walter Hoye Sentencing: A Message to African American Leaders part 1
Rev. Walter Hoye, Elder at The Progressive Missionary Baptist Church in Berkeley, CA was arrested and convicted in Oakland, CA for the “heinous crime” of holding a Pro-Life sign that read “God Loves You and Your Baby” outside an abortion clinic, breaking Oakland’s newly-adopted, unfair and unconstitutional bubble law or “medical safety zone”. Read more
A Dying Mothers plea to the Minneapolis Urban League falls on Deaf Ears
Part 3 of a 4 part series titled, “$103,770.00 Without a Trace”
Regina Edwards
Regina Edwards is a 40 year old Black woman with 6 children who has lived in north Minneapolis for the last 6 years. Regina is dying of Pancreatic Cancer. The doctors say they cannot operate. 2 out of 10 people get this cancer but by the time it’s diagnosed, its to late. In the mix of it all her furnace is not working, her house is cold, and she has no food in her refrigerator due to her electricity being cut off. As we speak, (during this interview) she’s getting ready to go to chemotherapy at North Memorial Hospital. There is no one but her 18 year old daughter to take care of the siblings. No relatives, no grandparents…no one.
Regina has been a political activist and worked at the Urban League of Greater Madison and the City of Madison. She also has worked for the International Culinary School in Burnsville, Minnesota and graduated from Minneapolis Community Technical College in May with a degree in Culinary Arts. Regina’s path to education, wealth and independence was tracking in the right direction.
But there’s a lot more to Regina’s story. Besides having her new home robbed by the people who lived there before, after the landlord gave her the key without changing the locks the day before Thanksgiving, there has been a list of events that have happened to Regina that she needs to let out. So let’s start with the Minneapolis Urban League. Regina says she knew things where strange at the Minneapolis Urban League when the leadership was like, “the Pink Panther,” says Ms. Edwards, “These people don’t want to address any issue other than their paychecks. They creep around as if they are invisible.”
Regina said, “I’m tired of fighting. From the social workers at the hospital to Section 8 – there was no one available at the Minneapolis Urban League to address, assist, or advise me on what to do and how a dying mother can get assistance for herself and her children in a true time of need.” As I talk to her tonight, her young daughter wants to use the computer to do homework – but Regina says to her daughter, “You can’t plug the computer in when the heaters are plugged in because the fuse will blow in the basement.” Regina, doesn’t like going in the basement that has flooded this summer and is filled with mold. She has 4 of the children sleep in the bed with her to keep warm.
Regina did go to the Minneapolis Urban League to seek help and counseling services from Dr. Brovada who has a “boot camp” at the Minneapolis Urban League that helps families. Because of Regina’s list of issues, Ms. Edwards says, “It was a laugh; we had so much going on that they never called back. I even called when I was in the hospital, still no response.”
Regina was first diagnosed with Cancer on August 2, 2008 and went through an unsuccessful surgery; she sought help from the Minneapolis Urban League for her and her children which fell on deaf ears. Meantime her 15 year old daughter took a liking to skipping school and hanging out at the Minneapolis Urban League. Regina’s 15 year old daughter, a runaway was allegedly welcomed into one of the men’s homes who operates out of the MUL. Now the 15 year old is 1 ½ months pregnant (allegedly) by a 19 year old that has told the mother (Regina), “She’s just 15, she can get an abortion.” Ms. Edwards says, “My daughter will not have an abortion! These people at the Minneapolis Urban League who smile in my face are the same ones responsible for my daughter getting pregnant. It’s a shame that the janitor at the Minneapolis Urban League knew my daughter was pregnant before I did. Where is the process for accountability?”
Regina goes on to say, “I have asked everyone at the Minneapolis Urban League to help me after my money was gone.” she asked, “What programs you have that I can be a part of to help keep my family together.” The only one that has shown any compassion or caring towards me was a couple of really nice ladies at the front desk. The men at the Urban League to include the local pastors that associate themselves with the MUL, Regina says, “I wouldn’t trust to bury me when I die.” Ms. Edwards was speaking about a fund that was to be set up to assist her and the children during this hard time. It has been alleged that there was monies collected that never got to Ms. Edwards.
Regina also says, “No one over north (Minneapolis) wants to be accountable for anything in the community. They all just worry about themselves. If the Minneapolis Urban League truly served the people of north Minneapolis, we would have more jobs, better schools, programs that worked and a future different than mine, which ultimately will be death!”
Doctors at North Memorial and Hennepin County Medical Center say that the cancer that Regina has in some cases can be avoided through exercise, healthy eating, nutritional education and a responsible community awareness of health disparities in the Black community. With all respect, this should be addressed by local social service agencies by partnering with local Universities and Hospitals to raise top-of-mind awareness to illnesses that affect the Black community more so than the mainstream; in some cases attributed to unhealthy diets, lack of food sources (food bank) and no money to make healthy choices. The Social Wellness Cluster at the Minneapolis Urban League has received dollars to address such issues on a monumental level but with the lack of leadership and process the message is muted to a quite whisper with no successful measurable results. “It’s not about catered parties at the Minneapolis Urban League to increase awareness about an illness; we need boots on the ground going door-to-door to engage the Black community. Those people act like they are too good to serve the people” says Ms. Edwards.
Is the University of Minnesota-North Side Partnership or UROC really the answer north Minneapolis needs? It’s been almost a year since a University and an Anthropologist ascended on north Minneapolis with all the grace of a Messiah. Still no one has address the high unemployment rates, no economic stimuli and the static feel of a blighted community. Also having the opportunity to meet with Dr. Robert Jones, D. Craig Taylor and Dr. Irma McClurin from the University of Minnesota we still don’t have a healthy source of food distribution like a co-op on the north side which they talked about with high hopes earlier this year.
The story continues. The Minneapolis Urban League has lost touch with the community. In a random survey taken on the corners of Penn Avenue and Plymouth Avenue in front of the Minneapolis Urban League, 20 people ages from 18 to 65 were asked two questions;
1. What does the Minneapolis Urban League do?
2. Who is the President of the Minneapolis Urban League?
Not one person knew what happens inside the piece of real estate sitting on the corners of Penn and Plymouth Avenue North or who the President was. Of course the people had an idea on what the agency should be doing – that’s a whole other story…soon to come.
What comes to mind is where are the leaders of the community? Furthermore, where are the civil rights leaders? Take note, on Tuesday, December 09, 2008 a 25 year old Black man from Minneapolis named Quincy Smith was tazered to death by Minneapolis Police at 1035 Knox Avenue North…no Black organizations said a word. Reports allege he had a bad heart.
No one deserves to die like that – no matter what the circumstances were.
Last Friday at a community meeting I was asked why I went after the Black social service agencies so hard and why don’t I attack some “White people.” My answer to this person who sits on the Minneapolis Urban League Board was simple. I said, “I don’t get thousands of dollars each year from the Minneapolis Urban League for advertising. I never got dollars from Northway Community Trust or NRRC. By the way – have you signed the Conflict of Interest statement yet?”
“Black people who work at social service agencies in north Minneapolis that have put themselves in the positions of helping people have to “step up.” No longer will the mainstream tolerate Black organizations that claim stupidity and having no money to complete missions but serve themselves at the highest levels, wanting for nothing.
The innocence of not knowing about what is going on in the Black community doesn’t fly after today.
There’s a Black president now!”
IBNNNEW- North Minneapolis: NAACP President “Uncovers” two of the North side seven and an estimated $4 million dollars Donald Allen
- Apology to the North Minneapolis Community. We don’t have leaders, we have self-appointed spokespersons Donald Allen
- The Death of North Minneapolis… Donald Allen
- IBNN Exclusive Report: Youth with weapon attempts to enter funeral of Alisha “Lele” Neely (Captured on Film) Donald Allen
- WCCO 4 (CBS) Television fails in journalistic integrity with “edited and spliced” tape of the Minneapolis Police Beating of Ira Stafford…rating F- Donald Allen
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