Wal-Mart Stores, criticized for displacing local retailers and accused of paying low wages, said on Friday it would donate $5 million to the National Urban League to fund workforce development and other programs at the black empowerment group.
The New York-based Urban League announced the grant during its annual conference in Atlanta.
Earlier this year, Wal-Mart, the world’s biggest retailer, said it would open stores in economically distressed parts of big U.S. metro areas that many other large retailers avoid.
A Wal-Mart-based group whose aim is to combat criticism of the retailer also named civil rights icon and former Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young as its chairman this year.
Young, the former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, in turn was criticized by a group of fellow civil rights campaigners and church leaders, disappointed that he chose to head up Working Families for Wal-Mart.
