Master of Ceremony Kyle Speller
Welcome
Sean Bradley, President/CEO Urban League of Metropolitan Denver
National Anthem Natalie Tatum
Negro National Anthem: “Lift Every Voice and Sing” Brhandi Ray
Greetings Kenneth M. Fisher, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Noble Energy Greetings Gloria Schoch, Community Affairs MillerCoors
Invocation
Rev. Tawanna Davis, Shorter Community AME Church
DINNER Remarks
Moses and Gwen Brewer Honorary Chairs
Keynote
Lauren Casteel, President/CEO The Women’s Foundation
McKinley Harris Distinguished Warrior Awards Robert “Bob” Willis Rita Kahn Co-Chairs
“Wind Beneath My Wings”
Natalie Tatum, accompanied by guitarist Jordan Linit
Chairman’s Award
Wayne Vaden, Chairman, Board of Directors Urban League of Metropolitan Denver
Closing Remarks
Young, Whitney Moore, Jr. (31 July 1921-11 Mar. 1971), social worker and civil rights activist, was born in Lincoln Ridge, Kentucky, the son of Whitney Moore Young, Sr., president of Lincoln Institute, a private AfricanAmerican college, and Laura Ray, a schoolteacher. Raised within the community of the private academy and its biracial faculty, Whitney Young, Jr., and his two sisters were sheltered from harsh confrontations with racial discrimination in their early lives, but they attended segregated public elementary schools for African-American children and completed high school at Lincoln Institute. In 1937 Young, planning to become a doctor, entered Kentucky State Industrial College at Frankfort, where he received a bachelor of science degree in 1941. After graduation he became an assistant principal and athletic coach at Julius Rosenwald High School in Madison, Kentucky. After joining the U.S. Army in 1942, Young studied engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). In 1944 he married Margaret Buckner, a teacher whom he had met while they were both students at Kentucky State; they had two children. Sent to Europe later in 1944, Young rose from private to first sergeant in the all-black 369th Anti-Aircraft Artillery Group. His experience in a segregated army on the verge of President Harry Truman’s desegregation order drew Young to the challenges of racial diplomacy. In 1946 after his discharge from the army, he entered graduate study in social work at the University of Minnesota. His field placement in graduate school was with the Minneapolis chapter of the National Urban League, which sought increased employment opportunities for African-American workers. In 1948 Young completed his master’s degree in social work and became industrial relations secretary of the St. Paul, Minnesota, chapter of the Urban League. In 1950 he became the director of the Urban League chapter in Omaha, Nebraska. He increased both the Omaha chapter’s membership and its operating budget. He became skilled at working with the city’s business and political leaders to increase employment opportunities for African Americans. In Omaha he also taught in the University of Nebraska’s School of Social Work. In 1954 Young became dean of the School of Social Work at Atlanta University. As an administrator, he doubled the school’s budget, raised faculty salaries, and insisted on professional development. In these early years after the Supreme Court’s decision in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, Young played a significant advisory role within the leadership of Atlanta’s AfricanAmerican community. He was active in the Greater Atlanta Council on Human Relations and a member of the executive committee of the Atlanta branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). He also helped to organize Atlanta’s Committee for Cooperative Action, a group of business and professional people who sought to coordinate the social and political action of varied black interest
groups and organized patrols in African-American communities threatened by white violence. He took a leave of absence from his position at Atlanta University in the 1960-1961 academic year to be a visiting Rockefeller Foundation scholar at Harvard University. In January 1961 the National Urban League announced Whitney Young’s appointment to succeed Lester B. Granger as its executive director. Beginning his new work in fall 1961, Young came to the leadership of the Urban League just after the first wave of sit-in demonstrations and freedom rides had drawn national attention to new forms of civil rights activism in the South. Among the major organizations identified with the civil rights movement, the Urban League was the most conservative and the least inclined to favor public demonstrations for social change. Young was resolved to move it into a firmer alliance with the other major civil rights organizations without threatening the confidence of the Urban League’s powerful inside contacts. In 1963 he led it into joining the March on Washington and the Council for United Civil Rights Leadership, a consortium initiated by Kennedy administration officials and white philanthropists to facilitate fundraising and joint planning. In his ten years as executive director of the Urban League, Young increased the number of its local chapters from sixty to ninety-eight, its staff from 500 to 1,200, and its funding by corporations, foundations, and federal grants. After the assassination of President John Kennedy, Young developed even stronger ties with President Lyndon Johnson’s administration. Perhaps his most important influence lay in Young’s call for a “Domestic Marshall Plan,” outlined in his book, To Be Equal (1964), which influenced President Johnson’s War on Poverty programs. By the mid-1960s, however, the civil rights coalition had begun to fray. In June 1966 Young and Roy Wilkins of the NAACP refused to sign a manifesto drafted by other civil rights leaders or to join them when they continued the march of James Meredith from Memphis, Tennessee, to Jackson, Mississippi. Young continued to shun the black power rhetoric popular with new leaders of the Congress of Racial Equality and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. Simultaneously, in consideration of the vital alliance with the Johnson administration, he was publicly critical of Martin Luther King’s condemnation of the U.S. pursuit of the war in Vietnam. At the administration’s request, he twice visited South Vietnam to review American forces and observe elections there. Before leaving office in 1969, Lyndon Johnson awarded Young the Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian citation. After Richard Nixon’s inauguration in 1969, however, Young modified his earlier positions, condemning the war in Vietnam and responding to the black power movement and urban violence by concentrating Urban League resources on young people in the urban black underclass. He continued to have significant influence, serving on the boards of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, MIT, and the Rockefeller Foundation and as president of the National Conference on Social Welfare (1967) and of the National Association of Social Workers (1969-1971). Subsequently, Young’s successors as executive director of the Urban League, Arthur Fletcher, Vernon Jordan, and John Jacob, maintained his legacy of commitment to the goals of the civil rights movement by sustained engagement with centers of American economic and political power. In March 1971, while Young was at a conference on relations between Africa and the United States in Lagos, Nigeria, he suffered either a brain hemorrhage or a heart attack and drowned while swimming in the Atlantic Ocean. Former Attorney General Ramsey Clark and others who were swimming with him pulled Young’s body from the water, but their efforts to revive him were to no avail.
Workforce Initiative Now (WIN) WIN (Workforce Initiative Now) is a collaborative program between the Regional Transportation District (RTD), Community College of Denver and the ULMD. The WIN partnership has created a model workforce development program that creates opportunities for metro Denver residents to train for living-wage transit and construction careers for RTD’s transit infrastructure projects like FasTracks. More than 200 people have found employment as a result of the WIN program.
Urban League Guild of Metropolitan Denver (ULGMD) Considered the heart and soul of the National Urban League (NUL) movement, the Guild plays an instrumental role in connecting the League to its communities and raises funds that allow the League to deliver programs that pave the path to empowerment. The mission of the Guild is to enhance and improve relations with the community and general public; develop and implement community programs and fundraising activities to support the programs of the ULMD. The ULMD Guild’s signature program is the Book Scholarship Program. In partnership with Metropolitan State University, the Guild provides funds for students with limited resources to pay for the cost of books and other school supplies. In addition, the ULMD’s Guild provides support to students who major in Africano Studies, a field of study that has produced and continues to produce information and educational research which has revolutionized the understanding of the rich history of the contributions of African Americans to American life. During the 2015-2016 academic year, the ULMD Guild’s Book Scholarship Program will be expanded to include students majoring in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math). These scholarships (four $1,000 scholarships) will be awarded to juniors and seniors in good standing at Metropolitan State University who have been recommended by the Chair of the STEM & Africano Studies Department and the Guild’s Scholarship Committee. Denver Urban League Young Professionals An auxiliary of ULMD, the Young Professionals’ membership ranges from ages 21 to 45. Its purpose is to provide opportunities for community service, leadership development and networking to all Young Professionals in and surrounding the metropolitan Denver area. It supports and embraces the National Urban League’s mantra, “Empowering Communities and Changing Lives.” Last year, ULMD’s Young Professionals volunteered over 2,400 hours of community service.
Comcast Corporation Comcast is a national company dedicated to bringing together the best in media and technology, and drives innovation to create the world’s best entertainment and online experiences. They have a rich and long partnership with the Urban League of Metropolitan Denver where they have provided financial support as well as board leadership, along with program support through internships and job training.
David Cole Principal, David Cole & Associates David Cole is one of the area’s biggest names in government and community relations, and he has been a longtime friend to the Urban League of Metropolitan Denver, providing political advice and leadership support for policy and political issues that impact The League and the communities it serves. He has over forty years of combined experience specializing in corporate lobbying; member-based associations; political campaigns; and community involvement. David’s commitment to the greater Denver Metropolitan area has literally changed the landscape of Denver and made for a better quality of life for all.
Grant Jones Founder/Executive Director; Center for African American Health Grant Jones is the founder and Executive Director of the Center for African-American Health (CAAH). Under his leadership, CAAH has played a critical role in reversing the health disparities that have persisted in the African American community. Grant’s professional journey can easily be framed as one with a lifelong commitment to community improvement and the overall health of the African American community
Syl Morgan-Smith Retired Media Pioneer Syl Morgan-Smith is a pioneering communicator and community leader. She was one of the first African American television news anchorwomen in Colorado and further broke the journalism color barrier as a sportscaster, a television talk show host, and as a newspaper editor. She is equally known for her dedication to honoring outstanding community leaders with the creation of the Colorado Gospel Music Academy & Hall of Fame where she has honored more than 450 individuals over a period of 31 years.
Dawn Bookhardt Founder; Bookhardt O’Toole Law Dawn Bookhardt is an award winning attorney and founding partner with the law firm of Bookhardt & O’Toole, a small, boutique law firm that ranks consistently as one of the country’s top law firms in the area of project development and public finance. Dawn has become a life-long friend to the Urban League of Metropolitan Denver, providing financial and strategic planning support and has established herself as a champion for education here in Denver.
The Board of Directors, staff, and membership of the Urban League of Metropolitan Denver are proud to salute the life and legacy of Lu Vason. The Board of Directors, staff, and membership of the Urban League of Metropolitan Denver are proud to salute the life and legacy of Lu Vason. Lu Vason was raised in Berkeley, California. Hair styling propelled him to begin writing newspaper articles for a small African American newspaper, the Berkeley Post. After interviewing a member from the music group Delites, he was offered an opportunity to enter the entertainment world by becoming their manager. Lu moved on to various management positions with the Whispers, Natural Four, and the Pointers of Pair who later became the Pointer Sisters. From management, he became a concert promoter, partnering with a friend in Denver to promote the P-Funk Tour across the United States which ultimately led him to settle in Denver permanently where he began working with the renowned promoter, Barry Fey. In July 1977, he attended Cheyenne Frontier Days, the Granddaddy of Rodeos, with his assistant, Linda Motley. Lu felt the experience was exciting but lacked Black cowboys and cowgirls. His vision to start his own African American Rodeo circuit was realized in 1984 when he founded the Bill Pickett Invitational Rodeo. The Bill Pickett Invitational Rodeo is the only African American touring rodeo in the United States and throughout the world. The rodeo has traveled to more than 33 cities across the United States and has drawn local and international media attention. In addition to the Bill Pickett Invitational Rodeo, Lu had his own entertainment company, Lu Vason Presents and continued to book concerts, plays and other forms of cultural activities for the community. He booked the talent for many of the Urban League of Metropolitan Denver’s (ULMD) annual dinners: Gladys Knight, Roberta Flack, The Temptations and Jeffrey Osborne were just a few of the artists who he brought to Denver. Lu’s vision to create a jazz festival in the Denver community became a reality in 2013, when he produced the 1st Annual Denver Jazz Fest, featuring Kenny Latimore, Tower of Power, Hiroshima, Brian Culbertson and other jazz groups. In February 2015, Lu introduced Colorado to “OperaJazz,” a fusion of opera and jazz featuring internationally acclaimed mezzo soprano Angela Brown. Lu is a lifetime member of the Urban League of Metropolitan Denver and has received such awards as the BM&T APEX Award for Distinguished Service, the 2005-2006 African American Voice Citizen of the Year Award, 2010 Urban Spectrum African Americans Who Make a Difference Award and the Do It Yourself Award. In 2010, he was inducted into the Blacks in Colorado Hall of Fame and in 2011 received the MLK Responsibility Award. In 2015, he was awarded the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Lifetime Achievement Award. Lu was a pioneer and visionary. He believed that each of us has an obligation to our brothers, sisters and especially the children to expose and educate them about African American accomplishments, no matter the industry or activity.
Platinum MillerCoors Noble Energy
Cooper
CH2M Comcast Denver Marriott City Center Epiphany Digital University of Denver Xcel Energy
Gold
David Cole & Associates Vista Equity Partners
Silver
Barclays Walton Family Foundation
Workforce
1st Bank BBVA Bookhardt & O’Toole Carpenter & Stratton Catholic Initiatives Children’s Hospital City Park Law Group Civil Technology Colorado Housing & Finance Authority Community College Denver
Bronze RTD
Workforce
Community College Foundation Denver Health Denver International Airport Denver Urban Renewal Authority GenX7 Metro State University RTL Networks UPS Wells Fargo
Milroy Alexander MAA Consulting
Jerome Page Denver Minority Opportunity Fund
Tom Currigan Kaiser Permanente
Darryl Presley Xcel Energy
Terry Manns Guild President
Quincy Shannon YP President
Derrick Fuller Wells Fargo Bank
Sean Bradley President/CEO
Sanai Fennell First Bank Bob Willis University of Denver
Michelle Hancock Office Manager
Nikki McCord Strategic Consultant
Sheritha Semakula Program Manager
Wil Alston Strategic Consultant
Toya Nelson Elester Townsend Mary Townsend
Moses Brewer Dr. Alice Langley Dr. Joseph N. Langley
Bob Willis – Co Chair Rita Kahn - Co Chair
Wayne Vaden, Esq. Vaden Law Firm, LLC Board Chair
Gwen Brewer Moses Brewer Bettye Ellis
Sanai Fennell Lavon Kemp Terry Manns
Susan Walker Bob Willis
Delores Mann - Martin Toya Nelson
buildings. I see coffee shops and condos. But in city after city I need only ride another three blocks or 13 blocks or 30 blocks and I see stifling poverty. Rambling, ramshackle, substandard housing where people are paying exorbitant rents. I see men and women standing at bus stops, heading for work in the dark, to a job that does not pay a living wage. I see small-business entrepreneurs struggling to find capital to grow their enterprises and ideas. If we are to save our cities, there are three main fronts on which we need to find long-term solutions: education, jobs and justice.
Remarks by Marc H. Morial, President and CEO, National Urban League: Good Evening, Urban Leaguers! We gather in sunny, steamy, balmy Fort Lauderdale for our 2015 Conference, “Save our Cities: Education, Jobs & Justice.” Five years ago this week, we launched the I am EMPOWERED campaign in celebration of our 100th anniversary. Since then, the Urban League movement has served about 10 million people as economic first responders. In the last 24 months, we’ve seen an acceleration of high profile incidents that have brought the issue of racial justice to the forefront of the American conversation. We mourn the loss of Michael Brown. We mourn the loss of Tamir Rice. We mourn the loss of New York City Police Officers Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu. We mourn the loss of Walter Scott. We mourn the loss of Sandra Bland, Eric Garner, and Trayvon Martin, Clementa Pinckney and the Mother Emanuel Nine. If police tactics were the spark that set off the explosion in Ferguson, we know that poverty, hopelessness and joblessness were the tinder. As the discussion about racial justice has been elevated in America, the Urban League movement must be and will be part of the response and the solutions. At the national level, our 10-point Plan for Justice and Police Accountability was presented to the President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing. We successfully advocated for key provisions that were included in the workforce innovation and opportunity act. The “Put Our Children First” multi-media campaign strengthened our support for Common Core Standards with an emphasis on Some may ask if the Urban League is needed now, after more than 100 years. I would answer emphatically, unequivocally, forcefully and unapologetically, that not only is the Urban League still needed, the Urban League is needed now more than ever. If the Urban League didn’t exist today, there would be a National Task Force working with an army of economic experts trying to invent us. What is the Urban League in the 21st Century? The landscape of the 21st Century is made up of think tanks. Think tanks have powerful thoughts and write excellent, well-worded position papers. They even sometimes produce model legislation. The 21st Century landscape is populated by talk tanks. They are erudite and articulate, and sometimes even clever and funny. We in the Urban League can think, and we can talk. But at our core and in our DNAwe are a do-tank. The do-tank must lead the effort to save our cities. The do-tank is about solutions. In city after city that I visit, I see a recurring theme of a tale of two cities. I see glistening downtowns, I see beautiful hotels and office
On education, we have been working on solutions with congress as part of an interesting alliance between other civil rights groups and business leaders, to reauthorize the elementary and secondary education act during this 50th Anniversary Year of President Johnson’s edict for educational equity. When it comes to jobs, the do-tank of the Urban League movement helped 16 thousand people find jobs last year and thousands more access high-quality job training, and we’ll match that record with anyone. With expanded support, I truly believe we could go from 16 thousand to 160,000 to 1.6 million. That’s how good our programs and our people are. We must close the growing income and wealth gaps that threaten our economic progress. We must save our cities. When it comes to justice, we must fix the damage to democracy by the Supreme Court in the Shelby v. Holder decision. We are working for passage of the Voting Rights Amendment Act, a flexible and forwardlooking set of protections against voter suppression and voter dilution. We can claim to be a free democracy only if everyone has a chance to choose our leaders. Further on the issue of justice, we must work for sensible gun safety laws. Gun safety measures like criminal background checks for every gun purchase won’t prevent every gun death, but they might have kept guns out of the hands of Dylann Roof and john Russell Howard – people who have hate running through their veins and clouding their minds. We must fix a broken criminal justice system, where non-violent offenders face unduly harsh sentences that defy common sense and logic, and a prison system which destructively drains $80 billion from schools, health clinics, community centers, transportation infrastructure. We will work in coalition with the NAACP, the National Action Network, Black Lives Matter, the Black Women’s Roundtable, the National Council of La Raza, LULAC, Asian Americans Advancing Justice - other friends and allies in the civil rights and social justice community – wherever we have a commonality of interest, be it with business leaders or faith leaders, or labor leaders, we will solicit ideas and work toward solutions. We refuse to be place in a mold, or a box, or a straight jacket. We will dare, when necessary, to be different … to go our own course … to set the pace. We will not be driven by ego or personal gain. We will remember there are tree-shakers and jelly-makers. There are workhorses and showhorses. There are think tanks and talk tanks and do-tanks. We are jelly-makers and workhorses who run the most effective dotank devised in American history. Formplete speech and video please visit: www.nul.iamempowered.com/ content/2015-state-urban-league-address-0 or or google: 2015 State of Urban League Address