Box 7, Folder 9, Document 16

Dublin Core

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The Urban Coalition

Se? ob Bh December 1968



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Hest dicate hand when, as Secretary of
gee cities—and ee to visit all

und that the ter: Z Boe
up intoa ne ae typical American city abe

“a /ariety of different worlds that Split
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peau In even form
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"i Was apparent to every-
matters closely that

ivenc
ould not Weather a storm

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abor, between Suburb and
ce

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ition

attack. The coa :
moving in several areas, if only

in small ways.
School Aid Disputed
For example, its education
division, headed by Dr. James
Kelly, an associate professor
at Columbia University, is Sup-

porting with fu
radically change the method by

An Urban
Coalition




only to a total
lition itself is

Community

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Urban Coalition

1815 H STREET N.W., WASHINGTON, D.C. 20006

AREA CODE 202 347-9630



Steering Committee
of The Urban Coalition

John W. Gardner
Chairman

Andrew Heiskell
Co-Chairman

A. Philip Randolph
Co-Chairman



I. W. Abel

President

United Steelworkers of
America

Pittsburgh, Pa.

Honorable Ivan Allen Jr.
Mayor
Atlanta, Ga.

Joseph H. Allen
President
McGraw-Hill
New York, N-Y.

Arnold Aronson

Leadership Conference
on Civil Rights

National Community
Relations Advisory
Council

New York, N.Y.

Roy Ash
President

Litton Industries
Beverly Hills, Calif.

Jordan Band

Chairman

National Community
Relations Advisory —
Council

Cleveland, Ohio

Honorable
Joseph M. Barr
Mayor
Pittsburgh, Pa.

Honorable

Jerome P. Cavanagh
Mayor

Detroit, Mich.

Frederick J. Close

Chairman of the Board

Aluminum Company of
America

Pittsburgh, Pa.

Honorable John F. Collins

Massachusetts Institute of
Technology

Cambridge, Mass.

Honorable
Richard J. Daley
Mayor

Chicago, IIl.

The Most Reverend
John F, Dearden
Archbishop of Detroit
Detroit, Mich.




President, Macalaster
College ;
St. Paul, Minn.

Henry Ford II
Chairman

Ford Moior commen
Dearborn, Mich.

Milton Graham
Mayor
Phoenix, Ariz.

The Most Reverend ~
George H. Guilfoyle

‘Camden: Nae

Dr. Edler G. Haw kins |

Pastor

St. Augustine
Presbyterian Church

Andrew Heiskell
Chairman of the Board
Time Inc.

New York, N.Y.

John H. Johnson
President
- Johnson Publishing
Company —
Chicago, Ill.

Joseph D. Keenan

Secretary

International Brotherhood
of Electrical Workers

Washington, D.C,

Honorable

John VY. Lindsay
Mayor

New York, N.Y.

George Meany
President
AFL-CIO
Woshraston, Gr

aif inwvin Miller
- President —
Gia eee
Company
Columbus, Ind.

Honorable

Arthur Naftalin
Mayor
Minneapolis, Minn.

James F. Oates

Chairman of the Board

Equitable Life Assurance
Society

New York, N.Y.

A. Philip Randolph
President Emeritus

of Sleeping Car Porters
New York, N.Y.

Walter Reuther a
United Auto Workers
Detroit, Mich.

David Rockefeller

President

New York, N.Y.

James Rouse

President

The Rouse Company ~
Baltimore, Md.

Rabbi Jacob P. Rudin
President

- Synagogue Council of

America —
New York, N.Y.

Theodore Schlesinger
President —

Allied Stores Corporation

New York, N.Y.

Asa T. Spaulding —

Director

North Carolina Mutual
Insurance Company

Durham, N.C.

David Sullivan
President
Service Employees
International
Union
Washington, D.C.

Honorable
James H. J. Tate
Mayor
Philadelphia, Pa.

“John Wheeler

President, Mechanics and
. Farmers Bank
President, Southern
Regional Council
Durham, N.C.

Roy Wilkins

Executive Director

National Association for
the Advancement of
Colored People

New York, N.Y.

Whitney M. Young Jr.
Executive Director
National Urban League
New York, N.Y.








On August 24, 1967, at an emer-
gency convocation in Washington,
D.C., a prestigious group of 1,200
persons issued an urgent appeal on
the urban crisis to all concerned
Americans. They were men and
women of diverse, even divergent
interests, and yet they joined to-
gether in a national effort to mold a
new political, social, economic, and
moral climate that would help to
break the vicious cycle of the ghetto.
This effort—heavily dependent on
local as well as national action—
was the beginning of the Urban
Coalition.

The immediate impetus was con-
cern over the mounting violence in Joseph H. Allen
American cities, and a realization
that the problems confronting the
Cities were too large and too com-
plex to be solved by a single segment
of society acting alone. At the con-
clusion of the convocation, the
participants, who included mayors
and leaders in business, religion,
labor, and civil rights, agreed on the
urgent need for action on a broad
statement of principles that became
the charter of the Urban Coalition
movement.

This is what the statement adopted
at the convocation said, in part:

“We believe the American people
and the Congress must reorder
national priorities, with a commit-
ment of resources equal to the mag-
nitude of the problems we face. The
Crisis requires a new dimension of
effort in both the public and private
Sectors, working together to provide
jobs, housing, education, and the
other needs of our cities.

“We believe the Congress must
move without delay on urban pro-
grams. The country can wait no Arnold Aronson
longer for measures that have too
long been denied the people of the
cities and the nation as a whole—
additional civil rights legislation,
adequately funded model cities,
anti-poverty, housing, education,
and job-training programs, and a
host of others.

“We believe the private sector of
America must directly and vigor-
ously involve itself in the crisis of
the cities by a commitment to in-
vestment, job-training and hiring,
and all that is necessary to the full
enjoyment of the free enterprise
system—and also to its survival. ...

“This convocation calls upon
local government, business, labor,
religions, and civil rights groups to










create counterpart local coalitions

where they do not exist to’support

and supplement this declaration of
principles.”

The work of mobilization began
immediately after the convocation
ended, under the leadership of two
co-chairmen: Andrew Heiskell,
chairman of the board of Time Inc.,
and A. Philip Randolph, president
of the International Brotherhood of
Sleeping Car Porters. By year’s end,
communities across the country had
responded by forming local Urban
Coalitions, each structured to fit the
particular needs of its city.

In the spring of 1968, the national
Urban Coalition became a non-
profit, tax-exempt corporation with
John W. Gardner as its chairman
and chief executive officer. The
Coalition is governed by a steering
committee of 38 national leaders
representative of the participants
in the convocation.

The Urban Coalition Action
Council was set up nationally as a
separate non-profit organization to
engage in direct advocacy of legis-
lation aimed at meeting the prob-
lems of the cities. It is responsible
for all legislative activities.

What is an Urban Coalition? The
key word is “coalition”: an alliance
of individuals and organizations
drawn together for specific purposes,
An Urban Coalition is a mechanism
through which individual leaders
and community groups can collabo-
rate in dealing with the urban crisis.

It is to meet all the complex and
interwoven problems of our urban
areas that Urban Coalitions are
born. The elements of modern in-
dustrial society have become so
specialized and fragmented, and yet
so interdependent, that a new force
is needed to pull the pieces together.
No single element can solve the
problems alone. The solution lies in
joining the creativity, resources, and
leadership of the private sector with
those of the public sector.

Existing Urban Coalitions have
already demonstrated their utility
as forums for communication
among the varied elements of com-
munities and as instruments for
community education and action.
They have helped to assess commu-
nity problems, establish goals and
priorities, and coordinate program
efforts. They have uncovered dupli-
cation of community efforts and
identified gaps where new services

are needed. They have served as
catalysts, marshaling broad com-
munity support and stimulating new
action programs while not operating
them directly. The Coalition move-
ment also provides a channel by
which Coalition members and local
groups may speak out on legislative
issues at the national and state level
affecting urban problems. Thus an
Urban Coalition is not a new orga-
nization, but a process, a means for
joint action by the significant and
diverse elements of the community.
While the programs and structures
of Urban Coalitions may vary to
meet local priorities, the Coalitions
share four essential characteristics: Joseph M. Barr
1. Urban Coalitions have adopted
# statement of principles which
parallels that adopted by the orga-
nizers of the national Urban Coali-
tion, tailored to the particular local
Situation. The national statement is
broad enough to have received the
endorsement of leaders from all
major segments of urban society,
from businessmen to civil rights
activists, yet specific enough to give
the Urban Coalition movement its
essential form and direction. (For
full text of statement, see appendix. )

2. Urban Coalitions, as indicated
by the statement of principles, are
committed to a comprehensive
attack on all of the interrelated
problems of their communities—
poverty, poor housing, inadequate
education, racial tensions. A single-
Purpose group such as a fair-
housing council, even if it has wide
community support, must expand
its goals to other issues to become
un Urban Coalition.

3. In their makeup, Urban z
Coalitions are broadly representa- Frederick J. Close
tive of the leadership and life of
their communities, As with the
national Urban Coalition, local
Urban Coalitions include repre-
sentatives of business, labor, local
government, religion, and civil rights
organizations. Most local Urban
Coalitions also include representa-
tives of education, the communica-
lions media, and established com-
munity organizations, [1 is essential
that all include spokesmen for dis-
advantaged and minority
neighborhoods,

4, Finally, Urban Coalitions must
have the resources to do an effective
job. These resources include an
adequate budget and an able (al-
though not necessarily large) staff.




The task of an Urban Coalition is a
serious and complex one, and it
demands a serious commitment of
all involved.

How an Urban Coalition Begins
An Urban Coalition can start with
one concerned and determined
person—the mayor, a businessman,
a labor leader—or out of discussions
among several individuals or com-
munity organizations. As quickly as
possible, however, the makeup of
the organizing committee for an
Urban Coalition should be spread
across the entire spectrum of
community leadership.

The task of this initial group is 5
to create the Coalition’s steering ve dediad Oa
committee, its policy- and program-
making body. These are some guide-
lines, drawn out of the experiences
of Urban Coalitions to date, for
selection of the steering committee
members:

—They need not have been pre-
viously identified with civic causes.
One task of the Coalition, in fact,
is to identify and enlist talent which
may not previously have been at the
service of the community.

—They should include the com-
munity’s most influential leadership.
The most zealous efforts of
churches, community-service
organizations, and neighborhood
groups will be wasted unless those
who hold power in local govern-
ment, business, labor, and commu-
nications are convinced of the
need for action.

—lIt also works the other way
around, The best efforts of the
holders of power will be frustrated
unless decisions are made with,
rather than for, the disadvantaged 7
in the community. The increasing George H.Guilfoyl®
drive for self-determination among
the minorities and the poor is pro-
ducing new and often militant
neighborhood and youth organiza-
tions, If truly representative, the
Coalition can provide the essential
link between emerging neighbor-
hood spokesmen and the established
communitywide leadership. It can
thus be a vehicle for both communi-
cation and common action, joining
resources to needs.

—The Coalition may represent a
city, a metropolitan area, even a
county. Kansas City, Mo., and
Kansas City, Kan., have found it
advantageous to form a joint Urban
Coalition; the twin cities of St. Paul
and Minneapolis have formed sepa-

rate Coalitions. The Washington,
D.C., Coalition has a metropolitan
base, extending into the suburban
counties in Virginia and Maryland.
Since most of the problems con-
fronted by a Coalition extend into
the metropolitan areas—finding
work for the unemployed, for ex-
ample, requires a look at the job
market both in the city and in its
suburbs—these tasks are made
easier if the Coalition is organized
On a metropolitan basis.

—The only criterion for the size
of the steering committee is that it
be large enough to do the job in the
Particular community. New York,
with the national headquarters of
many corporations, banks, and in-
surance companies and its thousands
Of small employers, has 150 mem-
bers, including spokesmen for
community-action groups. Detroit,
With one dominant industry, has 39.
The first order of business before
the steering committee is the draft-
ing of a statement of principles.
Once this is done and public an-
nouncement of the Urban Coali-
tion’s formation has been made,
action should follow quickly. The
community should know that it has

Andrew Heiskell








ment (with the focus on encourag-
ing entrepreneurship among ghetto
residents), youth, problems of the
aging, and communications.

These are some of the programs
that Urban Coalitions have launched
around the country:

Concentrating its strongest efforts
on helping the ghetto’s small busi-
nessmen, the Baltimore Urban
Coalition has formed a business task
force to help establish a Small Busi-
ness Investment Corp.—a high-risk
venture capital program with a
projected $1 million operating fund.
The task force has pulled together
the talents of the Greater Baltimore
Committee (a 102-member business
organization) to advise on the cre-
ation of business cooperatives, and
local associations of accountants,
lawyers, and retail merchants to give
technical assistance to inexperienced
ghetto entrepreneurs.

In the middle of its organizing
process, the Washington, D.C.,
Urban Coalition came into instant,
full-grown existence in response to
the April disorders which rocked the
capital following the shooting of
the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King
Jr. The Coalition appointed emer-
gency committees on food, housing,

John V. Lindsay

employment, and financial assist-
ance; they made available 1,400,000
free meals, developed 1,000 job
offers, found 800 dwellings for riot-
displaced persons and collected
$146,000 in emergency aid funds.
This emergency effort was followed
by a call to provide logistical support
to the Poor People’s Campaign:
delivering food to Resurrection

City three times a day and providing
medical care, a recreational pro-
gram, and community service
volunteers.

Jobs have been the chief focus of
the Minneapolis Urban Coalition,
working with the National Alliance
of Businessmen and the Chamber
of Commerce. The results have in-
cluded pledges to the NAB for 1,100
summer jobs and the waiving of
education-level requirements for
line work by one of the area's major
employers, Honeywell Inc.

The Riverside (Calif.) Urban
Coalition developed a Job Opportu-
nities Council and persuaded eight
of the city’s largest employers to
Participate. With funding from the
eight firms, the Council was to find
and get in touch with hard-core
unemployed persons. It would pro-
Vide or obtain necessary training to
qualify these applicants to meet
lowered minimum hiring standards,
then refer them to the firms, The
eight companies planned to hire a
Number equivalent to 4 per cent of
their present work force.

A-housing seminar sponsored by
the Gary (Ind.) Urban Coalition led
to the decision by two churches to
Sponsor the construction of lower-
income housing under federal mort-
gage guarantees. Along with these
efforts by the non-profit sponsors,
the area’s major employer, U.S.
Steel, announced its intention to
build about 300 moderate-income
housing units in the city.

The Bridgeport (Conn.) Urban
Coalition's acting Task Force on
Education formed an educational
consortium to ensure a college edu-
cation for all qualified students in
the Bridgeport area. The consortium
includes the three presidents of
Private universities who make up
the Task Force and the presidents
of four other institutions of higher
learning in the region. A committee
of admissions officers from the seven
Participating schools screens each
applicant and arranges for his
admission to one of the colleges.

J. Irwin Miller

A. Philip Randolph








pressing their views on national and
state legislative issues. Because most
Urban Coalitions seek tax-
deductible contributions from such
sources as community foundations,
some have chosen to establish a
separate organization, as the na-
tional group has, to carry out legis-
lative programs on the scale needed.
The Urban Coalition Action Coun-
cil will provide assistance to others
choosing this course.

The tasks of an Urban Coalition will
not be easy, for they reflect the scale
and complexity of the crisis situa-
tion facing the country. The search
for solutions involves major commit-
ments at every level—national, state,
and local—and by all segments of
society, public and private alike.
Substantial public resources must be
forthcoming if solutions are to be
found, but so must significant
private leadership.

“Out of past emergencies, we
have drawn strength and progress,”
said the founders of the Urban
Coalition movement. “Out of the
present urban crisis we can build
cities that are places, not of disorder
and despair, but of hope and
opportunity.”

Appendix

Principles
Goals
Commitments

Statement adopted at the Emergency
Convocation, August 24, 1967,
Washington, D.C.*

We are experiencing our third
summer of widespread civil disorder.
In 1965, it was Harlem, and the dis-
aster of Watts. In 1966, it was the
Hough area of Cleveland, Omaha,
Atlanta, Dayton, San Francisco, and
24 other cities. This summer, New-
ark and Detroit were only the most
tragic of 80 explosions of violence
In the streets.

Confronted by these catastrophic
events, we, as representatives of
business, labor, religion, civil rights,
and local government have joined in
this convocation to create a sense of
national urgency on the need for
Positive action for all the people of
Our Cities,

We are united in the following
Convictions:

We believe the tangible effects of
the urban riots in terms of death,
Injury, and property damage, horri-
fying though they are, are less to be
feared than the intangible damage
tO men’s minds.

We believe it is the government’s
duty to maintain law and order.

We believe that our thoughts and
actions should be directed to the
deep-rooted and historic problems
Of the cities.

We believe that we, as a nation,
Must clearly and positively demon-
Strate our belief that justice, social
Progress, and equality of opportu-
Nity are rights of every citizen.

We believe the American people
and the Congress must reorder na-
tional priorities, with a commitment
Of resources equal to the magnitude
of the problems we face. The crisis
requires a new dimension of effort in
both the public and private sectors,
Working together to provide jobs,
housing, education, and the other
heeds of our cities.

We believe the Congress must
Move without delay on urban pro-
gtams. The country can wait no

“At the national level, two separate orga-
nizations have been created: the Urban
Coalition and the Urban Coalition Action
Council, The Action Council is responsible
for the implementation of legislative goals
and objectives expressed in this statement.




longer for measures that have too
long been denied the people of the
cities and the nation as a whole—
additional civil rights legislation,
adequately funded model cities,
anti-poverty, housing, education,
and job-training programs, and a
host of others.

We believe the private sector of
America must directly and vigor-

ously involve. itself in the crisis of -

the cities by a commitment to in-
_Yestment, job-training, and hiring,
and all that is necessary to the full
~ enjoyment of the free enterprise sys-
tem—and also to its survival.
We believe the sickness of the
cities, including civic disorder with-

in them, is the responsibility of the ~

whole of America. Therefore, it -is

the responsibility of every American

to join in the creation of a new
political, social, economic, ~ and
‘moral climate that will make possi-
ble the breaking of the vicious cycle
of the ghetto. Efforts must be made
to insure the broadest possible op-
portunity for all citizens and groups,
including those in the ghetto, to par-
ticipate fully in shaping and direct-
ing the society of which they are a
part.

This convocation calls upon the
nation to end once and for all the
shame of poverty amid general afflu-
ence. Government’ and business
must accept responsibility to provide
all Americans with opportunity to
earn an adequate income. Private
industry must greatly accelerate its
efforts to recruit, train, and hire the
hard-core unemployed. When the
private sector is unable to provide
employment to those who are both
able and willing to work, then in a
free society the government must of
necessity assume the responsibility
and act as the employer of last resort
or must assure adequate income
levels for those who are unable to
work.

Emergency Work Program

This convocation calls upon the
federal government to develop an
emergency work program to pro-
vide jobs and new training oppor-
tunities for the unemployed and
underemployed consistent with the
following principles:

—The federal government must
enlist the cooperation of govern-
ment at all levels and of private in-
dustry to assure that meaningful,
productive work is available to

everyone willing and able to work.

—To create socially useful jobs,
the emergency work program should
concentrate on the huge backlog of

‘¢mployment needs in parks, streets,

slums, countryside, schools, col-

__leges, libraries, and hospitals. To this
end an emergency work program

should be initiated and should have
as its first goal putting at least one
million of the presently unemployed
into productive work-at the earliest
possible moment. ba Se
—The program must~ provide
meaningful jobs—not dead-end,

~ make-work projects—so that the

employment experience gained adds
to the capabilities and broadens the

- Opportunities of the employees to

become productive members of the
Permanent work force of our nation.

—Basic education, training, and
Counseling must be an integral part
of the program to assure extended
°pportunities for upward job: mo-
bility and to improve employee
Productivity, Funds for training,
education, and counseling should be
Made available to private industry
aS well as to public and private non-
Profit agencies.

—Funds for employment should
be made available to local and state
8°vernments, non-profit institutions,
and federal agencies able to demon-
Strate their ability to use labor pro-
ductively without reducing existing
levels of employment or undercut-
Ung existing labor. standards or
Wages which prevail for comparable
Work or services in the area but are
Not less than the federal minimum
Wage.

—Such a program should seek to
qualify new employees to become
Part of the regular work force and
that normal performance standards
are met,

—The operation of the program
Should be keyed to specific, localized
“nemployment problems and fo-
Cused initially on those areas where
the need is most apparent.

Private Employment, Assistance,
and Investment

All representatives of the private
Sector in this Urban Coalition de-
Cisively commit themselves to assist
the deprived among us to achieve
full Participation in the economy as

’ Self-supporting citizens. We pledge

full-scale private endeavor through
Creative job-training and employ-
ment, managerial assistance, and


basic investment in all phases of
urban development.

The alternatives to a massive and
concerted drive by the private sector
are clear. They include the burden
of wasted human and physical po-
tential, the deterioration of the
healthy environment basic to the
successful operation of any business,
and the dangers of permanent alien-

ation from our society of millions of —

citizens.

We propose to initiate an all-out
attack on the unemployment prob-
lem through the following steps:

—In cooperation with govern-
ment, to move. systematically and
directly into the ghettos and barrios
to seek out the unemployed and un-
deremployed and enlist them in
basic and: positive private training
and employment programs. We will

re-evaluate our current testing pro- —

cedures and employment standards
so as to modify or eliminate those
practices and requirements’ that un-
necessarily bar many persons from
gainful employment by business or
access to union membership.

—To create a closer relationship
between private employers and pub-
lic training and emergency employ-

ment programs to widen career op-

portunities for our disadvantaged
citizens. To this end, we will pro-
ceed immediately to promote “Earn
and Learn Centers” in depressed ur-
ban areas that might well be the
joint venture of business, labor, and
local government.

—To develop new training and
related programs to facilitate the
early entry of under-qualified per-
sons into industrial and commercial
employment.

—To develop large-scale pro-
grams to motivate the young to
continue their education. Working
closely with educators, we will re-
double our efforts to provide part-
time employment, training, and
other incentives for young men and
women. We also pledge our active
support to making quality educa-
tion really accessible to deprived as
well as advantaged young people.

—To expand on-the-job training
programs to enhance the career ad-
vancement prospects of all em-
ployees, with particular emphasis on
those who now must work at the
lowest level of job’ classifications
because of educational and skill
deficiencies. ’

We pledge to mobilize the man-

agerial resources and experience of
the private sector in every way pos-
sible. We will expand part-time and
full-time assistance to small busi-
ness development. We will strive to
help residents of these areas both
to raise their level of managerial
know-how and to obtain private and
public investment funds for develop-
ment. We will work more closely
with public agencies to assist in the
Management of public projects. We
will encourage more leaders in the
private sector to get directly and
personally involved in urban prob-
lems so that they may gain a deeper
understanding of these problems
and be of greater assistance.

We pledge our best efforts to de-
velop means by which major private
investment may be attracted to the
renovation of deteriorating neigh-
borhoods in our cities. We will ex-
Plore and encourage governmental
Icentives to expedite private in-
vestment. We will develop new
methods of combining investment
and managerial assistance so that
the residents may achieve a leader-
Ship position in the development of
their areas,

Housing, Reconstruction,
and Education

This convocation calls upon the
Nation to take bold and immediate
action to fulfill the national need to

_ Provide “a decent home and a suit-

able. living environment for every
American family” with guarantees
of equal access to all housing, new
and existing, The Urban Coalition
Shall, as its next order of business,
address itself to the development of
a broad program of urban recon-
Struction and advocacy of appro-
Priate public and private action to
move toward these objectives, in-
cluding the goal of rehabilitation
and construction of at least a mil-
lion housing units for lower-income
families annually.

This convocation calls upon the
Nation to create educational pro-
grams that will equip all young
Americans for full and productive
Participation in our society to the
full potential of their abilities. This
Will require concentrated compen-
Satory programs to equalize oppor-
tunities for achievement. Early
childhood education must be made
Universal. Work and study pro-
Stams must be greatly expanded to
Enlist those young people who now






The Urban Coalition
1819 H Street N.W.
Washington, DiC. 20006





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