Marc H. Morial has led the National Urban League since 2003, after two terms as mayor of New Orleans. His career runs through law, elected office and nonprofit management. The League's twentieth-anniversary account of his leadership describes economic opportunity as a central concern, alongside education, health, civic participation and civil rights.
Born in New Orleans in 1958, Morial earned a bachelor's degree in economics and African American studies at the University of Pennsylvania in 1980 and a law degree at Georgetown in 1983. He returned home, practiced law, started his own firm, served in the Louisiana State Senate and became mayor in 1994, remaining in office until 2002. BlackPast identifies him as the city's third African American mayor.
At the Urban League, his work combined advocacy with programs delivered through local affiliates. In a February 2006 National Press Club address, he explained the organization's role in employment assistance, job training and preparation for homeownership, explaining that the League shared goals with other civil-rights organizations but pursued them through direct services.
Business development became part of that agenda. The League's Entrepreneurship Center Program offers counseling, mentoring and management training through participating affiliates, alongside a restaurant-support partnership with the PepsiCo Foundation. These are the practical questions business owners face: operating systems, contracts, financing.
Morial also gave the organization's policy arguments a public stage. The League's timeline records a 2004 legislative conference and the introduction of an Equality Index in its *State of Black America* report, plus the 2006 launch of Project Ready, an education program preparing high-school students for college and work.
The National Park Service's International Civil Rights Walk of Fame profile records his work as a lawyer, legislator, mayor and nonprofit executive.
