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There were like 10 black newspapers in 1940 because the economy, you know, white New Orleans, you couldn't shop in white New Orleans, generally. And so our folks, not only in New Orleans, but in Memphis and Birmingham and Montgomery and Atlanta and, you know, I'm sure in Greenville and Columbia and Charlotte and Raleigh and Durham, Durham being one of the capitals of black capitalism, I mean, built communities and built businesses and built sustainability. I mean, it was something to behold, you know, when we think about it. And then when civil rights came, we became much more mainstreamed. It was about the job in government or the job in the private sector, the job of the company that we couldn't get, that our parents couldn't get. In a place like New Orleans, before 1965, 66, 67, a black person could not even be a garbage man. Right? A black person could not drive a bus. A black person's only job in government was as a janitor. Unless you were in the all-black school where you were teachers and administrators and coaches and principals. Right. And so it's, you know, I reflect on that because I think you can't effectively navigate the future unless you have some sensibility of the past and all of the work that helped generations of people, you know, get over it, move past it and the struggles and the battles that they waged. wholeheartedly wholeheartedly and and i'm going to talk about some of your accomplishments now because i know you're very humble right but i think sometimes you need to hear about the goodness of things that you did man like when you were the the the mayor of new orleans lowest crime rate that they had ever had right you you brought economic growth back to the city you cleaned up the perception of what New Orleans was on a national level. You did those things. And I don't think people understand the brevity of that because it's not like you can just go in there and snap your fingers in a half. Man, it was hard work. Yes. We created a bit of a movement. And it was a movement to rebuild New Orleans. Yes. I mean, and I felt like we had to create a movement atmosphere. Yeah. You know, a movement atmosphere to get people active and involved. And we tackled the, you know, the violence problem is what compelled me to run for office. We were having, you know, we had 450 murders, something of that sort. Yeah. 1993, 1994, we had a corrupt and ineffective police department. And I drove around driving past some playgrounds, broken bottles, broken basketball goals. I said, this is not going to sustain it. This is not how it should be. And it really, in almost a fit of just passion, I said, I'm going to do something about all of this. And so I embraced a strategy to deal with violence that was multifaceted. You know, in those days, people would get in these long debate. Oh, you know, we need more police. No, we need more social programs. We need more this week. I said, you know, we're going to have more of all. Right. But we're going to fix this police department and ultimately we're going to need some more policemen. but we're going to have a different quality of officer. We're going to have a different set of standards. We're not going to have this underperforming, lackadaisical system. And then I said, we're going to invest in youth. So that first summer I took office in May, put together 40 summer camps, put together 3,000 summer jobs for youth. And I told every agency in the government, you all are going to contribute to this summer jobs program. Nobody can have their own little program. And I'm going to have a lottery to pick the participants. I got no politics in this. And I had a big lottery and I got some of the Saints football players to come out and pick the numbers out of the hat. So I wanted to change the system in terms of how you did, how you got involved. you don't have to know somebody, right? You basically, you know, this is, this is, and I divided up the slots by councilmanic districts. We had five, but it set the template for investing in youth. We, we invested in midnight basketball. We invested in starlight basketball, which was for girls. We learned when we brought all the young people together that the recreation department did not have any programs for girls, nothing really. So we hired a women's athletic director and created a whole set of programming for girls. You know, we were just, you know, I was the kind of person, kind of, you know, if we talked, I said, look, give me some ideas. And if people came up with a good idea, I'm like, let's go do it. You know, we're not going to get caught up in a paralysis study. We're going to try to do it. If it doesn't work, we'll chuck it, we'll put it on the side, and we'll go do something else. And so we had all of this, you know, youth program and it was contagious because as the city did it, then churches and faith-based organizations decided to create their own camps. Right. Their own youth programs. I mean, so we had this whole almost revolution in youth programming in New Orleans in those days. I also did something that, you know, it was dramatic. I put a curfew in place. And I'm a civil rights, civil libertarian person. But I said, too many of these kids are getting killed that night. They're out. Look, we're going to help the parents. You have to be in. Now, if you're going to work, you're going to school activity. But, you know, New Orleans also has an attractive nightlife. You know, we've got a few French quarter. We got Frenchman Street. We got all kind of. So, you know, people like to be out. But we had to deal with the fact that we had too many youth getting hurt. And we did the curfew in a very different way. We did not take the young people we picked up off the street to jail. We brought them to a community center. We called it the curfew center. And we called their parents. Come pick up your son. Come pick up your daughter. No questions asked. Come pick them up. And it had a dramatic impact. And so we were ideating and creating all these initiatives and these programs, and then trying to do things differently. So we had to clean up policing. We had to put police substations in public housing. We put police officers on bikes. We put them on foot. The chief I had Richard Pennington was an incredible chief. He said I'm going to find some guys who grew up in the desired public housing development, and I'm going to let them patrol there. He said, you can't put guys, officers, men and women, in these neighborhoods and they're all, none of them have lived in these neighborhoods. Yes, sir. You got to pick some folks and they're going to be known and they're going to be comfortable and they're going to understand the rhythm of the place. So they don't go in there like they're a bunch of outsiders. Police officers are not the military. You know, they're there to protect and to serve. Yes, sir. Militaries had to protect and defend. It's a different mission. So it was tremendously successful. Also, it was very aggressive about Black business and minority business and women-owned businesses having an opportunity, doing business with the city and doing business on major projects. And I had opposition from people in that regard. And I I knew it was just people protecting their own economic turf, you know, not to break that up to the extent that I could. We had a very successful run. I left office with the highest approval ratings of any mayor in modern New Orleans history. I won two elections, both by significant margins. And we just worked every single day at open door policy at City Hall as far as community groups. If somebody wants to come talk, raise an issue, I'm trying to hear you. That doesn't mean I'm going to agree with you. I was at... I think I picked this up from my father. Being just a straight shooter with people. You come down and talk to me. You're going to get an answer. It might be a yes, it might be a no, but you're going to get an answer. right that's it i'm not gonna play you and delay and oh man i'm trying to think about it right now i'm gonna say look i don't think i can make that work or you know what your idea is good but it's it's half form come back with a better idea so we you know we did a lot of uh you know i had open door policy with the business community many of whom did not support me initially uh i had an open door policy and we we had a tremendous uh relationship with the ministerial and faith leadership in the city. We convened them on a quarterly basis. We held a luncheon for them on a quarterly basis to talk about the affairs of the city. We had a great relationship with labor, right? Labor, again, you know, we had periodic, I believe in engaging with people on a periodic basis because, you know, I took the, I got to hear what they're saying. Mint is still $15 a month for premium wireless. 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I need to hear and sometimes I need to hear it uninterpreted by staff and others I gotta hear and they say okay I hear you but I'm not following, help me follow so that's the kind of administration and leadership we had and look I had a tremendous number of great people around me, young people lots of young people, some gray beards to a record number of women in leadership positions. We had the first Asian Americans to serve in a cabinet. I had the first LGBTQ cabinet member in New Orleans history. I mean, I had an inclusive administration. I called it the Gumbo Coalition. Yes, sir. And so that was, you know, that was a run. And being mayor of a major American city is a tough job. It is a demanding job. It is a painful job sometimes, but I loved every minute of it because I felt close to the people and the people treat you like you're their, you know, their big brother, older women, you treat me. I'm like their son. You know, they treat you like, you're their neighbor, right? Yep. And that relationship with the people is something I really, really treasure. Absolutely. And you did it with dignity. You did it with grace. And you did it from a point of inspiration. I'm always going to say the most inspiring person I know is you. And I mean, that's my story. But you took that purpose. And I'm going to say you completed the mission, right? But then there was a bigger mission, right? Right. The Urban League comes calling. Right. So. So talk to us about accepting accepting that call, accepting that purpose. You know, when I got the call to basically asking me if I would interview for the job, I was about six or eight months out of office. I begun practicing law at a great law firm. And the first thing I thought of was Whitney Young and Bernie Jordan. and I thought of they were role models of mine. I mean, Whitney Young, I followed his career to the pages of Jet Magazine. Vernon Jordan, I met when I was a teenager. And later on, met him again because his daughter went to college with me at the University of Pennsylvania. Mick, can you hear me? Is it going okay? Yeah. And so, you know, I thought, I thought, wow, this is a historic civil rights organization. This is a great opportunity. This is the national stage of advocacy. I didn't know at the time as I applied and got the job that the organization needed a serious uplift and a serious makeover generationally it had become proud and aging very proud but we had a lot of the organization to some extent was operating in almost in the past tense right and And sometimes what happens when you're operating in the past, you don't know it on the inside. Everybody on the outside knows it. Yeah. Unless you can confront that as opposed to fighting it. I had someone who worked for the league the first month I was there said, well, you know, you want us to brag about our accomplishments. He said, you don't understand. That's just not our way. I said, that used to be your way. I said I believe in advocacy I believe in promotions I believe in hype I do not believe in let's just do it and don't tell anybody about it and so we led a significant remake of the organization I mean the predecessors the people who served before me they were ripe for those times when I took over I was in my mid 40s and they wanted a younger person and they wanted someone with political chops and some management ability. And I mean, the rest is history. You know, we created. So now, you know, 20 years later, the organization's five times as large as it was back then. We're building a brand new headquarters building. We'll be moving in in September. We have seen a dramatic expansion of our programs, workforce development, housing. We've brought an entrepreneurship program into the portfolio of the league. We have expanded our advocacy on the national level. We have embraced coalition building with other civil rights and social justice organizations. It's been dramatic. And I've said, you know, we have to be there on major issues. and we have to be present. Yes. And we have to run quality programs. Urban League is unique in that we do civil rights advocacy, but we also do direct services programming. And that direct programming is really what defines us. You want a job, go to the Urban League. You want to get trained for a job, go to the Urban League. You're trying to become a homeboy, go to the Urban League. You are looking for a safe, wholesome afterschool program for your child, go to the Urban League. During COVID, we were vaccinating. I think we vaccinated a quarter of a million to a half a million people through a promotional campaign we had. We have an entrepreneurship initiative where we provide services, free technical services to entrepreneurs. We serve about 10,000 of them in any given year. I mean, this is the work that we do and we've worked to expand that work. And it's the work that distinguishes us from other organizations. And so, you know, I like to use the term, I say we're sui generis. We're a unicorn in this space. And some people say well you think you can do all of the above Actually all of the above is really singular in that we are fighting on behalf of people to build a policy And then we're involved in the execution of the very same policy. And that's the connective tissue between the work we do in public policy and advocacy and the work we do on the programmatic side. yeah and you're exactly right like i i tell people all the time i told you i talked to less we talk about you specifically twice a month because for the 23 year old me so going back to that moment that i was touched i heard of the urban league i knew what the urban league was but i thought the urban league had ceased to exist i thought it was one of those things like like snick and slick. Just, you know, it was there, but it's no longer here. And I remember calling my mom and saying, hey, I thought the Urban League was no more, but the Urban League is back. And my mom was like, no, they're not, right? And I was like, no, they're back. And so I've been able to see over the last 20 years, the resurgence, the back in the community, the advocacy for what you're just talking about, inspiring youths, connecting with business owners, connecting with city and government officials, that you are, in my words, these are the words of Mick and Mick only, that unique one of one for our community. And I genuinely mean that. Well, I feel that, you know, one of the other things I've tried to do here at the League is, you know, work closely with other civil rights leaders. And, you know, work closely with Reverend Al, Derek Johnson, Melanie Campbell, the Legal Defense Fund, the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights, National Council on Negro Women, Leadership Conference of Civil Rights. And then we work with the Latino, Asian and other communities as well. So one of the philosophies that I try to embrace is coalition building. And in a coalition building mindset, everybody swims in their own lane, but we're swimming in the same direction. It doesn't mean that we agree on tactics and strategy for everything under the sun. It means, and I just felt like there was too much petty personality rivalries, you know, among African-American leaders. And I just, to me, it makes nice talk, nice gossip, but it doesn't get you anywhere. And I also think that the adversaries of our leadership, they throw wedges in between us. If we allow that to happen. And I just, you know, I just feel like it's counterproductive, but that you can have constructive disagreements. Absolutely. Absolutely. So for the listeners and viewers right now, with you leading the National Urban League, what's one shift that everybody needs to make that can not only support the Urban League, but support America? We are in an environment today with the new administration where there's an assault on civil rights. There's an assault on much of the progress we've made. Many of these executive orders, efforts to shut down agencies, efforts to purge. Look, the head librarian of the Library of Congress, Carla Hayden, distinguished African-American woman was fired for no reason. And then they say, well, she's D.E. and I. Well, you're saying she's you're saying she's black. She was fired. Right. Because she was black. That sickens me. And so we're in a period now where people have to recognize how important it is for them to be engaged, use their voice, use their vote. It is not easy to deal with what we're dealing with but there's an assault, there's really an effort to undermine progress and see in the short run you hear noise but don't feel the damage in the long run the noise will subside but the damage will be done, you know it's like a cut you know it bleeds and then it gets infected right And so we have to recognize that in this moment and that to assert that is not just about it's not about partisan politics. It's not what it's about. It's about standing up for some basic American principles. It is a basic American principle to me that everyone should have fair access to the American dream. It is a basic principle to me that everyone should have an unobstructed right to vote. It is a basic principle to me that we should have freedom of speech and freedom to learn about our history and our culture. I think there's some basic things that are very fundamental that appear to be under attack, that are under attack. And I just feel like I don't want people, we can't be weary, tired. Complacency is our enemy. Despair is not a strategy. Being pissed off and angry is not a strategy. Except to the extent that it energizes us to do something. That's where we are today. And I, you know, would encourage people to get involved. If you want to get involved in the Urban League, go to NUL.org, sign up. You can be part of our advocacy efforts and that sort of thing. You can join a local affiliate in 92 communities across the nation. If the Urban League is not for you, join an organization that's committed to civil rights and social justice. Be a part. Use your social media to not only post beautiful pictures of yourself, but also to advocate for the kind of change and community improvement. But mainly, we have to be active and involved. Get involved through your church. Get involved through a community group. So important. Yes, sir. I love you more than you know man I respect you for the path that you have given to me and I don't want to leave without giving you the floor man I know we've got you've got a lot going on a lot that's upcoming so talk to us a little bit about this gumbo coalition and some other things that you have coming up go to Amazon go to an online book sale I've got a leadership book called the gumbo coalition go to HBO Max there's a documentary on myself and Janet Merguia, a very, very incredible leader. She leads the largest Latino civil rights organization in the nation, UNITO-SHU-S. Go check out some of the work that we are doing. But my appeal to people is to be active and involved. Be part of the work of community. Yeah, things are tough out there. I don't have any time. You got time to send some tweets. You got time to send some IG posts. You got some time to put some messages out there. Follow us, retweet, repost, re-IG it. Yeah. You know? Yeah. Use your social media voice. But get active, be involved. And then the other thing, too, let's always reach back to the next generation. Reach back. Absolutely. You know, I've got a 23-year-old son and an 18-year-old daughter. and my 23-year-old son, I've been encouraging him by example and by words. Say, look, you guys now are old enough to go back to your high school and talk to some young guys and just encourage them, right? Yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely. Marc Morial, ladies and gentlemen, he's been an inspiration to me. We'll be in touch. If you want to, bring your podcast down to Cleveland for the National Urban League Conference in Cleveland in July. Go to NUL.org for more. If you want to come down there and set up, let us know. I will totally do that. I will do that. Get a little back in touch with us. We usually have a podcaster's row and radio row, et cetera. We will totally make that happen. We will totally make that happen. To all the viewers and listeners, remember, your because is your superpower. And more importantly, like my guy, Mr. Marc Morial says, go make impact and go do it today. I