ldunbar@nul.org

New York, NY, October 15, 2000–TheNational Urban League, in observance of its 90^th anniversary, is hosting a special program featuring current National Urban League president Hugh B. Price and past presidents Vernon E. Jordan, Jr. (1971-1981) and John E. Jacob (1982-1994) for an afternoon of reflection and celebration, this Sunday, Oct. 15, beginning at 2:30 p.m. at Columbia University, The Rotunda — Low Memorial Library.

For the past 90 years, the National Urban League, through its 114 affiliates in 34 states and the District of Columbia, has served as one of the leading civil rights and social service organizations serving African Americans. Following, a look at some of the League’s work during the years under the leadership of presidents Price, Jacob and Jordan:

• Hugh B. Price Price joined the National Urban League as its seventh president in the summer of 1994. At the dawn of his tenure, the organization was facing several challenges, including financial instability and a diminished public profile. Major accomplishments during Price’s tenure include:

• Promulgating a strategic vision for the League to focus aggressively on its three-pronged agenda: Ensuring the academic preparation and social development of our children so that they are equipped for self-reliance and citizenship in the 21^st century; fostering economic self-sufficiency for their parents through gainful employment, entrepreneurship and home ownership; and promoting racial harmony and inclusion so that the opportunities inherent in the structure of American society are open to those the League serves;

• Successfully eliminating the League’s sizable, $1 million-plus operating deficit and building a $1.6 million revolving cash reserve;

• A major retooling and replenishing of NUL staff (roughly 60-70 percent new recruits since his appointment), including implementing a performance-oriented ethos that is reflected even in compensation;

— more —

• Transforming the National Urban League’s publications capability from an in-house printing press to state of the art technology;

• Modernizing movement technology to get all affiliates online with e-mail and Internet capabilities, networked through constantly updated technology;

• Moving to new headquarters at 120 Wall Street;

• Near total reconstitution of the National Urban League’s Board of Directors, including successfully attracting many top corporate leaders back to the board;

• Launching of a major endowment drive, resulting in a tripling of our capital base since Price joined and doubling in the past year alone;

• Reviving Opportunity Journal, the League\'s hallmark magazine that hadn\\\'t been published since the late 1940s;

• Imposing tough new standards and procedures for selecting and training affiliate CEOs;

• Re-introducing periodic performance reviews of affiliates;

• Adopting new dues structure for affiliates; and

• Aggressively pursuing media exposure for achievements and programs, as well as utilizing national public service announcements and policy forums to publicize the League’s stand on issues and injustices.

• John E. Jacob: Currently Executive Vice President and Chief Communications Officer for Anheuser-Busch Companies, Inc., Jacob, a former chief executive officer of the Washington, D.C. and San Diego affiliates, took the reins of leadership in 1982, solidifying the League\\\'s internal structure and expanding its outreach even further. Accomplishments under Jacob include:

• Establishment of the Permanent Development Fund in order to increase the organization\\\'s financial stamina;

• In honor of Whitney Young, the establishment of several programs to aid the development of those who work for and with the League: The Whitney M. Young, Jr. Training Center, to provide training and leadership development opportunities for both staff and volunteers; the Whitney M. Young, Jr. Race Relations Program, which recognizes affiliates doing exemplary work in race relations; and the Whitney M. Young, Jr. Commemoration Ceremony, which honors and pays tribute to long term staff and volunteers who have made extraordinary contributions to the Urban League Movement;

• The creation of the League\\\'s NULITES (National Urban League Incentive to Excel and Succeed) youth-development program and a new emphasis on programs to reduce teenage pregnancy, combat crime in black communities, assist single female heads of households, and increase voter registration.

— more —

• Vernon E. Jordan: In 1971, Whitney M. Young, Jr., the executive director of the National Urban League, drowned while visiting Nigeria. Jordan, who is currently a Managing Director at Lazard Frères & Co. llc, emerged as the unanimous choice of the Urban League board to succeed him. For the next decade, until his resignation in December 1981, Jordan skillfully guided the League to new heights of achievement, including:

• The creation of 17 new affiliates;

• Amassing an annual budget exceeding $100 million, much of it supplied by the federal government;

• Major expansion of social-service efforts, and fresh initiatives in such League programs as housing, health, education and minority business development;

• The establishment of a citizenship education program that helped increase the black vote and brought new programs to such areas as energy, the environment, and non-traditional jobs for women of color;

• The introduction of The State of Black America report, which has become the definitive work on the progress of African Americans in, among other areas, politics, academic achievement, technology, business and economics.

In all, the National Urban League has operated under seven presidents, including Hugh Price. It speaks volumes to the commitment of these leaders that their tenures endured for so long:

• George Edmund Haynes, the League’s first executive secretary, served the organization for eight years, from 1910 to 1918.

• Haynes’ successor, Eugene Kinckle Jones, had the longest term — 22 years, from 1918 to 1940.

• Lester Blackwell Granger headed the organization for 20 years, from 1941 to 1961.

• Whitney Moore Young, Jr., whose service was cut short by his untimely death in a drowning accident off the coast of Africa, gave the League ten years of service, from 1961 to 1971.

Regardless of the length of tenure, each individual left a distinct mark on the organization and helped push the League to the forefront of the civil rights movement, while helping create and deliver the social services that have come to define its place in history.

Founded in 1910, the National Urban League is a nonprofit organization that, through its more than 100 affiliates in 34 states and the District of Columbia, provides direct services and functions as an advocate to generate policy reforms that empower African-Americans to achieve economic, academic and racial equality. The League’s headquarters is located at 120 Wall Street in New York City.