NATIONAL NEWS: SPOTLIGHT ON CAMPAIGN HONORARY CHAIRMAN
“First of all, the day I stepped into the office of president of the National Urban League, I found myself confront- ed with some serious financial problems facing us. The Reagan Administration had come in and they were taking away programs because they were attacking civil rights and civil rights activity, so we were losing money there. I also discov- ered during my first day in the job, the Ford Foundation decided to change its funding strategy of the National Ur- ban League. The president of the Ford Foundation and Vernon Jordan were very good friends, they were practically inseparable and during Vernon’s time as the NUL President & CEO.” “The Ford Foundation gave to the National Urban League every two years, $1.5 million. The Ford Foundation was our lead foundation funding source, but that changed when I became president and it presented an opportunity for me to demonstrate my capacity to raise and secure funding for the National Urban League.” “I suggested to the Ford Foundation President Franklin ‘Frank’ A. Thomas ‘Why don’t you give me $5 million and I will use the $5 million to raise additional money and I will not come back to you and ask you for any more money.’ Jacob reported that Thomas contemplated and Jacob saw a generation of children at risk – risk of drug abuse, crime and incarceration, at risk of dropping out of school, at risk of unstable family lives and early, violent death. His response was a commitment to young people called the National Urban League Incentives to Excel & Succeed – NULITES. 30 years later, Jacob’s vision has grown into the National Urban League Youth Leadership Summit, one of the nation’s largest and most ambitious educational events for young people anywhere in the county." "In 1982, when John Jacob took over at the beginning of the Reagan Administration, the nation was experiencing a backlash against social services and the demonization of underserved urban Americans. Under his leadership, the National Urban League fought back forcefully, responding to the proposed slashing investments in urban America with a blistering report, Don’t Just Stand There and Kill Us, that persuaded Congress to ease up on the planned cuts.
Jacob was named one of three honorees by the National Urban League in February 2020 for his leadership and service.
ours, uniquely the Black community, that would be one of them.” Jacob also elected to challenge Black males to understand their role in teen- age pregnancy. “That is, don’t make a baby if you cannot be a father and I attempted to get Black males to understand that simply having a baby does not define you as a man, it defines you as weak and irresponsible, particularly when you can- not be a father to the child.” Thirdly, Jacob focused on crime in the Black community. “Crime in our neighborhood was not going to be solved by people coming from outside of our neighborhood com- munity to attack the problem of crime. Therefore, I challenged the Black com- munity and I challenged the local Urban League affiliates to focus upon reducing crime in our communities so that we could strengthen the communities in which we lived.” Jacob also wanted to foster political empowerment. “Political empowerment was para- mount for a successful community and being successful citizens. Every year, the National Urban League published the ‘State of Black America’ and we had evidence that the four aforementioned areas were specific areas of concern not
only to organizations like the National Urban League, but also they were con- cerns to the people who lived in the communities we were supposed to be serving. I attempted to get us to focus on unique Black community issues while we also focused upon national issues that we had to address and resolve.” cob formulated a new philosophy for the National Urban League that was similar to the 1947 Marshall Plan initiated by the United States to assist the recovery of European nations after World War II. Funding was sought from private sec- tors to facilitate entry-level job training programs, and Brother Jacob proposed the NUL give direct assistance from its own resources to poverty-stricken communities, including housing and job placement. Additionally, he sug- gested the federal government institute full employment through substantial public works and job training programs. He joined other civil rights groups in supporting economic boycotts against private industry to induce corporate funding for developing markets and jobs for racial minorities. Brother Jacob was also confronted with the finances of the NUL. On Funding During the early 1980s, Brother Ja-
60 | WINTER 2019 ♦ THE JOURNAL
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