By Rhonda Spears Bell
August 7, 2006

Three of the Conference of Mayors member mayors participated in the opening plenary session of the National Urban League Convention July 27 in Atlanta, led by its President and CEO, former New Orleans Mayor Marc H. Morial.

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, the featured speaker for the opening plenary session that focused on economic empowerment, addressed several key issues including how the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act opened up opportunity for himself and others in this country. The mayor went on to say that the issue of economic empowerment can not adequately be addressed without discussing the need for a comprehensive bi-partisan immigration reform, and the need to reawaken the conversation of poverty in America. “We need to bring the debate in Washington back to the working family,” Villaraigosa said. “When we open up the door for one of us, we open up the door for all of us.”

Villaraigosa went on to say that urban education reform must be moved to the frontline of the national debate. “We can’t widen the circle or increase minority participation in the economic life of our cities or deliver the promise that has always been the defining mission of the Urban League if we don’t stand up and address the failure of public schools in our cities around the country,” he said.

“We can’t compete in the global economy if we lose half of our kids before they graduate from high school,” Villaraigosa added. “Fixing the schools must be the central challenge of our movement. Our future depends on the education of a child that we will never know.”

Villaraigosa’s speech was followed by a panel discussion on “Increasing African-American Participation in Rebuilding America’s Cities” with Baton Rouge Mayor Melvin “Kip” Holden, Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown, and St. Louis businessman Michael Roberts.