![urban league urban league](https://billbrettboston.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/URBAN-LEAGUE-11.jpg)
In 1995, with offices at 1255 Euclid Ave., the Urban League offered programs in the areas of education, employment, business development, elderly services, and housing. The Urban League sponsored the Annual Conference on the African American Family and in 1995 implemented a Job Readiness Lab in cooperation with CUYAHOGA METROPOLITAN HOUSING AUTHORITY. The league also opened a street academy for youth disaffected with public education. Department of Labor, organized Operation Equality (1966-75) to facilitate residential integration (see FAIR HOUSING PROGRAMS), and worked for fair housing laws. It set up a skills bank with the cooperation of the U.S. Although considered a conservative body, the league participated in Operation Black Unity, the 1960s boycott against McDonald's restaurants to protest blocks to African American franchise ownership. It concentrated on housing and on opening public contact jobs to blacks, in such places as department stores and banks. In the 1950s the league appealed directly for racial harmony through conferences and community planning. After the war, the group emphasized vocational counseling for youth. During WORLD WAR II the organization concentrated on labor relations, and local employers looked to the league for qualified workers. Affiliated with the National Urban League (NUL) since 1930, the Negro Welfare Association changed its name to the Urban League of Cleveland in 1940. Already by the 1930s, improved housing was a primary goal of the association. The organization worked to acclimate the new arrivals to the city and the factory, to gain acceptance for AFRICAN AMERICANS among employers, and to help newcomers find housing.
![urban league urban league](https://mediad.publicbroadcasting.net/p/wxxi/files/styles/small/public/201509/urban_league_logo.jpg)
CONNERS, the group's first executive secretary, directed it from 1917 until his retirement in 1940.
![urban league urban league](https://cdn.britannica.com/13/126113-050-2927991E/Lyndon-B-Johnson-civil-rights-leaders-Oval-January-1964.jpg)
The organization was created at the behest of the WELFARE FEDERATION OF CLEVELAND to aid the adjustment of African American workers coming to Cleveland during the Great Migration after WORLD WAR I, intended as a buffer to absorb the culture shock resulting from this move, and to fill a gap in services. It has supplemented its early focus on employment with an emphasis on housing, education, and research. 1917 as the Negro Welfare Association of Cleveland, confronts racial barriers to economic opportunities. The URBAN LEAGUE OF GREATER CLEVELAND, an interracial organization incorporated on 17 Dec.