As the 107th National Urban League Annual Conference kicked off in St. Louis with a State of The Urban League Address on Wednesday, July 26 at Friendly Temple Missionary Baptist Church, the organization was still full from the festivities surrounding the ribbon cutting for the Ferguson Community Empowerment Center earlier that day. A collaborative effort between The Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis and The Salvation Army, the center stands at the site of a burned down QuikTrip referred to as “Ground Zero” of Ferguson protests.
“I could not think of a more important, special way to mark the opening of the 107th Annual Conference of the National League Conference or more representative of what the Urban League movement is truly all about,” said National Urban League President and CEO Marc Morial. “Out of the ashes, this morning there was hope. Where the flames of righteous anger once burned, lives will be transformed.”
The co-chairs of the conference were regional business leaders Michael Neidorff, chairman, president and CEO of Centene Corporation (who is also board chair of the National Urban League) and David Steward, founder and chairman of World Wide Technology.
“Since the unrest of 2014 our experiences – particularly in Ferguson – can serve as an example of the progress that can be made when the businesses, community organizations and elected officials work together for the transformation of a community,” Neidorff said. “As St. Louis continues to build out a model for positive social change, it has benefited from constructive reflection and action.”
Morial said that Centene should also be a model of corporate leadership because of its post-Ferguson work. Early in the unrest, Centene committed to building a $25 million Ferguson Service Center that brought more than 250 jobs to the region, with an emphasis on staffing from Ferguson and North St. Louis County.
“When others may have wanted to run away from the challenges in Ferguson, our chairman – like an economic first responder – ran towards the fire,” Morial said of Neidorff. “He is an outstanding example of responsible corporate leadership. He has set forth an example that we want business leaders to take note of – and that is great corporate social responsibility.”
Just before the conference opened, Centene announced that with its Home State Health subsidiary it would fund the more than $1.3 million initial capital necessary to build a health clinic inside the Ferguson Schnucks that will be operated by Betty Jean Kerr’s Peoples Health Centers.
“Although we are still learning, St. Louis and the Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis are also in a position to share and teach – this is so important,” Neidorff said. “That’s why Centene and Worldwide Technology are proud to be title sponsors for this year’s conference – to showcase the work that is being done to make our community a beacon of hope.”
When conference co-chair David Steward addressed the crowd, he reminded them that he was once a struggling entrepreneur whose success was made possible by the support of the Urban League.
“As I stand before you with a $9 billion company, the future of our company is bright because of the people who gave me opportunities and put me on the right track and provided me with the core values that our company still operates on today,” Steward said. “It’s all because of people like you in this room who decided I was important.”
Morial quoted Black Enterprise magazine as saying Worldwide Technology is the largest back-owned business in the United States – and took it one step further by saying that it is the largest black-owned business in the history of the United States.
A sizable portion of the programming of this year’s conference included resources and information to help minority business owners grow and thrive. Sessions included “Turn Your Hustle into a Strategy,” The State of Diversity and the Color of Change in American Business” and “Innovating with Inclusion: Advocating for Diversity & Why It Matters.”
“We will not have much-needed innovation if we don’t bring diversity to the table with us,” Steward said. “That is what made World Wide what it is today,”
Urban League in Ferguson
The work done in Ferguson by the Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis underscored the entire conference, held July 26-29 in St. Louis. Those walking into the central exhibit halls at America’s Center passed “Outside In: Painting For Peace,” an exhibit of visual art painted on plywood that protected business windows in Ferguson during the height of the unrest.
And Ferguson was often a talking point as an illustration of what’s possible when the Urban League works with corporate and community partners to facilitate change.
“People should not ignore that three years ago, when a young man’s body was laying in the streets of Ferguson, the Urban League turned the pain into power,” the Rev. Al Sharpton said at the second plenary session on Thursday, July 27 at America’s Center. “What happened yesterday at the center showed that we can not only burn, we can build – and we can heal. There is now a building to show that we will build and rejuvenate.”
According to Morial, the St. Louis affiliate’s work in Ferguson and legacy of excellence were deciding factors for bringing the conference back to the region.
“For years St. Louis, has been an incubator for excellence and activism, so it’s only fitting that we hold this year’s conference here,” Morial said.
August 5, 2014 marked Michael McMillan’s one-year anniversary as president and CEO of the Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis. A few days later, he and many others in leadership positions would be challenged in a way that few would have imagined as the region became undone because of nonstop unrest.
“Michael’s baptism of fire was the tragic death of Michael Brown and the uprising that followed,” Morial said. “His steady, responsible leadership has continued the momentum of healing in the community.”
