Open Letter to National Urban League President Mark Morial

The Demands:
1. The Minneapolis Urban League to immediately be put into Affiliate Receivership.
2. An open election for the Board of Directors.
3. An election for President of the MUL drawn from a pool of local candidates, or the immediate appointment of Pamela Coxaum (Tucker) as President.
4. An audit of the Social Wellness Cluster.
5. The immediate re-hiring of Cheryl Morgan Spenser as outreach liaison.

Dear Mr. Morial,

I'm sure you already aware of the Minneapolis Urban League's attempt to establish a training program, as written about in the Minnesota Public Radio story, "MnDOT grant to help minorities get construction work." The community has been told that the model will be one similar to a model followed in Milwaukee, WI. Still today, we have no published action plan on how one hundred and fifty thousand dollars in a sympathy grant can get Black residents of Minneapolis to work.

The Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) has found the "weak link" in the community and granted the Minneapolis Urban League .00015% of two billion dollars they have received over the last two years to maintain roads, bridges and highways in the state of Minnesota.

The problem created by the Minneapolis Urban League accepting $150,000 is one of bad management and a lack of vision and business acumen.  A training program in the Twin Cities, in addition to already-established programs, would be a $4 million dollar operation, including certified instructors, administrative staff and a curriculum that has been tried, tested, adjusted and modified to meet the changing demands for Highway Heavy, Green Construction and support needed to compete in the marketplace.  This task is too big for the Minneapolis Urban League. Secondly, the amount of grant money is not enough to meet the demands of a community were the jobless ratio is 3-1.

The Minneapolis Urban League, in reality cannot hire staff to create this mystical program, nor do they have the confidence of the community, which it has neglected for far too long. The most important thing that those of us that are on the inside know, is that the MUL is in need of funding, but its very hard to collaborate with the local powers-that-be. As a fine example of this, for the first time in over 40 years, the MUL will not be a place where the community can go and cast their votes in November.  Sources have confirmed that there are no plans to set up polling places at the agency in 2010.  

The catastrophic breakdown of local Urban League chapters is well underway. The Saint Paul Urban League offices are in fact shut down. The people of Saint Paul have complained to Mr. Herman Lessard, your Affiliate Director for some time - but again, they have received no response.

For the Minneapolis Urban League to "bow-down" and accept "token Negro-ship" money is an embarrassment to Black Minnesota. It seems like every program "created" by the National Urban League, leans heavily on an existing government program. The government has never been able to solve Black people's problems.  Yet neither the local or national Urban League chapters have done their homework and called upon local experts to help create and implement innovative, effective, fund re-capturing programming.

Mr. Morial, you're a businessman, politician, advocate for Black business and a strong leader for civil rights. You understand the process of putting a plan together and implementing that plan for success.   This is evident by reading your own story, "Urban League: Racial equality gap persists."   What we have is a situation of benign neglect on the part of the organizations that we depend on to make sure the poor, homeless and suffering can live to see another day. While the National Urban League staff stay in the nicest hotels, eat the best food, play with the best of the "players," the Black people of the United States suffer a fate in some cases worse than death - "abandonment by their spokespersons."

Why is the Minneapolis Urban League able to run "rouge" and accept such a small grant for a task that would require more than $5 million plus dollars a year with the technical and educational assistance? "If this is an example of a "pimping win" against MnDOT, I'm here to tell you, there has no been Pimps since 1974."  [is this your point?  The money received is far too little to do the job at hand? This is far from clear.  You need to make this point at the top]

In 2009, our Black president, Barack Obama made sure the Minnesota Department of Transportation received over $600 million dollars to work on the roads in the great state of Minnesota. Black and other minority-ethnic contractors received less than $500K of that money. The Minnesota Department of Transportation is a state agency that a more than 15 year documented history of discrimination against Black contractors, despite federal regulations telling them to "Make it happen by any means necessary."  But the Minneapolis Urban League remains silent.

The MnDOT released several Requests for Proposals (RFP's) to address the issue of building a better "widget" to attract minority-ethnic contractors as DBE's.
The Minneapolis Urban League remained silent.

On a related issue, there have been over 30 homicides of Black youth in Minneapolis this year. The best idea the Minneapolis Urban League can come up with is a "sleep in" for the youth.  You and I both know that people who commit homicides are not looking to participate in a "sleep in."

Most recently, the MUL cancelled the Family Day Celebration, and event that has taken place for more than two decades in the Twin Cities.   What are the people appointed to run the MUL really doing?

The Minneapolis Urban League continues to be silent about what their plan is, constituting an abandonment of their mission statement and bylaws.

The people of Minneapolis, not just me, are fed up with the lack of critical thinking and positive action from the Minneapolis Urban League.

This "open letter" will be released nationally. If you would like to respond (unedited), please sent your words to ibnnnews@gmail.com.

Best in Success,
Donald W.R. Allen, II –Editor in Chief
The Independent Business News Network
USA Radical Black

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/causes-and-organizations-articles/open-letter-to-national-urban-league-president-mark-morial-2990918.html

Donald is the Editor in Chief of the Independent Business News Network and USA Radical Black.com.