100 Things you didn't know about the Urban League
The Urban League of Miami has been around since 1943., when it was called the Greater Miami Negro Service Council. Over the last 66 years, the organization has had many accomplishments, including:
- Greater Miami Negro Service Council formed. Affiliates with National Urban League (1943)
- Talmadge Willard Fair joins Miami League, becomes youngest president in League history (1963)
- Recruited and placed the first Black airline stewardesses with Eastern Airlines (1960s)
- Spearheaded the desegregation of all public housing in Dade County.
- Sponsored the first integrated sit-down dinner at the Everglades Hotel in downtown Miami (1960s)
- Recruited and placed the first Black sales clerks in Miami’s downtown department stores: Burdines, Richards and Jordan Marsh.
- Recruited and placed the first Black bank tellers with Southeast Bank.
- Registered 1,000 new, Black voters per week through “Vote Baby, Vote” campaign in 1968,
- Recruited/placed the first Blacks employed by Florida Power & Light.
- Recruited/placed the first Black Southern Bell telephone operators.
- Recruited the first Blacks for Florida Highway Patrol.
- Created the first minority procurement program for Miami-Dade County
- Integrated Miami’s public and private volunteer corps, by recruiting, training and placing over 400 young, Black professionals through the League’s Leadership Development Academhy 1960s)
- Placed over 3,000 Blacks in non-traditional jobs (1960s-70s)
- Opened the first alternative school for Cuban -American children expelled or suspended from Dade County Public Schools.
- Built the first turn-key public housing project in Miami’s “Negro Central District” (Overtown).
- Created the first Business Development Center for Dade County’s Black residents.
- Recruited and placed the first Blacks in AFL-CIO apprenticeship training programs.
- Operated the first home ownership program for Blacks in Dade County.
- First HUD certified Housing Counseling Agency in Liberty City.
- Sponsored and developed the first Emergency Housing Shelter in Liberty City.
- Developed and operated the first Alternative Program for Black students expelled or suspended during the early days of desegregation in Dade County Public Schools.
- Operated the first “On-the-Job” training program in South Florida and the first Health Manpower Training Program for Blacks.
- Incorporated the first Community Development Corporation in Liberty City (G.M.U.L.)
- Conducted Reading Improvement Programs as early as 1977.
- Constructed and/or rehabilitated thousands of units of affordable rental housing (60s-today).
