Kristen Clarke
President & Executive Director
Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law

As the country remains focused on the ways in which Russia interfered with the integrity of the recent 2016 election, we must not forget to focus equal attention to the ongoing threat of voter suppression.  Voter suppression and ongoing voting discrimination stand as grave threats to American democracy.  Across the country, we are witnessing state and local officials take action to make it harder for African Americans and other minority communities to vote. From restrictive voter ID requirements to purges of the registration rolls, and from racial gerrymandering to the disenfranchisement of people with criminal histories, officials in some states are working hard to restrict access to the franchise for African Americans and other minority communities.  Through community vigilance and impact litigation, we can push back against voter suppression. 

Tony Allen, Ph.D.
Head of Corporate Reputation
Bank of America

Founding President
Metropolitan Wilmington
Urban League

I am a blessed Black man.  Against enormous odds with respect to my family background and prospects for economic mobility, I have received great opportunities in my life. Those opportunities have afforded me a good living, a respectable profile in the public square, and a resolute passion to serve others that I have always taken very seriously.  The old biblical adage, “To whom much is given, much is required” is the standard by which I have lived my life and, in my mind, should be the burning platform for every middle and upper class African American in the United States.

Donald Cravins Jr.
Senior Vice President for Policy and
Executive Director of the Washington Bureau

Late last year, the National Urban League released a report entitled, “21^st Century Innovations in Energy: An Equity Framework.” The report is not intended to serve as an environmental position paper, but instead is an economic and inclusion report focusing on the expansive economic opportunities in the American energy industry. It provides: 1) an overview of the domestic electricity, solar, and oil and natural gas industries; 2) current employment numbers in each sector; and 3) economic and employment opportunities in each sector.

Mayor Sylvester Turner
Houston, TX

To be an African-American mayor leading a city in the 21^st century is not about “power” but about “possibilities.” With more than 470 African-American mayors leading cities across the United States, the lens of our leadership is shaped from our own personal experiences. Together, we collectively bring a perspective that allows for a spectrum of possibilities.

As city leaders, it is our obligation to ensure the fiscal responsibility of taxpayers’ contributions towards city operations, as well as address the pension liabilities of a city’s police, fire and civilian workforce. These very important, and very complicated issues, are just a few of the priorities mayors must tackle.  There is urgency in every moment, and expediency required in every decision.  But, we must be cautious not to become so caught up in the process of managing cities that we lose sight of the importance of being mayors of color, and the significance our governance has on our communities.

Rep. Bobby Scott 
United States Congress
3rd Congressional District, Virginia

African-American students are graduating high school and enrolling in college at higher rates than ever before, but despite much progress, the right to equal educational opportunity remains a struggle. Access to public education may have come a long way since the dark eras of slavery or the segregation of Jim Crow, but too many African-American students still attend underfunded public schools segregated by race and class, effectively denying them equal educational opportunity and the chance to succeed in college and career. In 1954, the Supreme Court, in the Brown v. Board of Education decision, found that,