95th Annual ASALH National Convention

95th Annual ASALH Convention
Raleigh, NC
September 29 - October 3, 2010

95th Annual
ASALH Convention

The 2010 Black History Theme
The History of Black Economic Empowerment

The need for economic development has been a central element of black life.
After centuries of unrequited toil as slaves, African Americans gained their
freedom and found themselves in the struggle to make a living. The chains
were gone, but racism was everywhere. Black codes often prevented blacks
from owning land in towns and cities, and in the countryside they were often
denied the opportunity to purchase land. Organized labor shut their doors to
their brethren, and even the white philanthropist who funded black schools
denied them employment opportunities once educated. In the South, whites
sought to insure that blacks would only be sharecroppers and day labors, and
in the North whites sought to keep them as unskilled labor.

Pushing against the odds, African Americans became landowners, skilled
workers, small businessmen and women, professionals, and ministers. In the
Jim Crow economy, they started insurance companies, vocational schools,
teachers colleges, cosmetic firms, banks, newspapers, and hospitals. To fight
exclusion from the economy, they started their own unions and professional
associations. In an age in which individuals proved unable to counter
industrialization alone, they preached racial or collective uplift rather than
individual self-reliance. The late-nineteenth and early twentieth centuries
witnessed an unprecedented degree of racial solidarity and organization.

In 1910, a group of dedicated reformers, black and white, gathered to create
an organization to address the needs of African Americans as they migrated
to the cities of the United States. The organization that they created a
century ago became we all know as the National Urban League. For a
century, they have struggled to open the doors of opportunity for successive
generations, engaging the challenges of each age. ASALH celebrates the
centennial of the National Urban League by exploring racial uplift and black
economic development in the twentieth century.

Raleigh Convention Center | 500 South Salisbury Street | Raleigh, NC 27601
Raleigh Marriott City Center

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