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National Urban League President Marc H. Morial reached out to United Way representatives. He mingled with community leaders and addressed an audience of about 300 people at the Columbus Convention & Trade Center.
With each interaction, he had only one goal in mind, and that was to boost support for the organization's local affiliate (Columbus, GA), which has been rebuilding for the past 10 months.
"I want to send as strong a message as possible that the National Urban League supports the new leadership team here at the Columbus Urban League and that Columbus, Georgia, is important to the Urban League movement," Morial said Wednesday afternoon at a news conference. "This is an important city. It is an affiliate that has seen some tough times, but I'm very confident now with the new leadership that it's on a path to a new era and an era of impact and transformation."
Morial, former mayor of New Orleans and president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, was in town as keynote speaker for the local affiliate's 18th Annual Equal Opportunity Day Awards Dinner. It came 10 months after the organization hired Brooke Burgess as CEO to rebuild the organization, which had been stymied by political division.
Accompanying him on his rounds were two national Urban League executives: Herman Lessard, the senior vice president of affiliate services, and Rhonda Spears Bell, senior vice president of marketing and communications. Bell, a native of Columbus, is the daughter of the Rev. Emmett Aniton, pastor of Friendship Missionary Baptist Church. She said she recently moved back to town and is looking forward to helping the local Urban League.
Those who attended the black-tie gala included several elected officials. The list included U.S. Rep. Sanford Bishop, D-Albany, and his wife, Municipal Court Clerk Vivian Creighton Bishop; Mayor Teresa Tomlinson; state Rep. Calvin Smyre; Phenix City Councilman Arthur Day; and several local judges.
In his speech, Morial thanked Burgess and the Urban League Board for their dynamic leadership over the past few months. He said a few years ago the affiliate faced significant challenges and some questioned if the organization could make it. But Smyre said he would not stand by while the Urban League of Columbus ceased to exist, Morial recalled. So, the national organization sent Lessard to help revive the organization.
He said Columbus is only one of two Urban League affiliates in the state of Georiga, and it is just too valuable to lose.
"I want to be perfectly clear, absolutely unambiguous, leave no shadow of a doubt, that Columbus, Georgia, is essential to what we call the Urban League Movement," he said. "Georgia is one of the nation's fastest-growing states. It's one of the nation's most diverse states. It is one of those states that's always been a bellwether and representative of the tension of the new South and the old South. Georgia has always led the way.
"Our presence here is special and it's important because of what this city means, not only to the state of Georgia, but what it means to the state of Alabama, what it means to this region, what it means to the many military families who have made this area their home," he said. "This is the place where we have to be."
