July 31, 1921 to March 11, 1971
Early in 1968, (click here) AIA President Robert Durham, FAIA, extended an invitation to the executive director of the National Urban League, Whitney M. Young, Jr., inviting him to deliver a keynote speech at AIA’s National Convention in Portland, Oregon.
Young (click here) was appointed to head the NUL in 1961, a position he would hold until his untimely death in 1971 at the age of 49. During the decade of Young's leadership the organization experienced pronounced growth, which included a nearly twenty-fold increase in its annual budget from $325,000 to over $6,000,000, and an increase in staffing from three dozen employees to more than a thousand. Young also moved the organization to the forefront of the civil rights movement. Prior to Young's tenure, the NUL held a cautious stance regarding civil rights issues.
Young was one of the most influential leaders of the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom and a member of the legendary "Big Six" civil rights leadership team. Planners for the March used the NUL headquarters office in New York for their meetings and Young served as a featured speaker. Following the March, Young advocated for federal assistance to cities combating poverty. He developed a 10-point domestic program, the "Domestic Marshall Plan" as a strategy for combating poverty and closing the wealth gap between Black and White Americans. Young's plan was influential to President Johnson's War on Poverty and was partially incorporated into the legislation. In 1968, the Johnson administration awarded Young the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor....
