A Conversation with Marc Morial—President of the National Urban League (Part 1)

Marc H. Morial is President and CEO of the National Urban League, the nation's largest historic civil rights and urban advocacy organization.

Our conversation with Marc Morial begins with some of the biggest political lessons we have learned in 2025 and what we can look forward to in 2026. We also discuss the rise of Democratic Socialism and the impact of Mamdani’s campaign in NYC.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Broadcasting from the Hip Hop Weekly Studios. I'd like to
welcome you to another episode of Civic Cycer, where our
mission is to foster allyship empathy and understanding.

Speaker 2 (00:08):
I go by the name ramses Job.

Speaker 3 (00:10):
He is Ramsay's job. I am q Ward. You are
tuned into Civic Cipher.

Speaker 1 (00:15):
Indeed you are, and we have a very special guest
on with us today. He goes by the name of
Mark Moreal, and sit back and relaxes. We are going
to have a fantastic conversation with the President of the
National Urban League.

Speaker 2 (00:29):
And without further ado, let's get into it.

Speaker 1 (00:32):
Mark Moreal is President and CEO of the National Urban League,
the nation's largest historic civil rights and urban advocacy organization.
As Mayor of New Orleans from nineteen ninety four to
two thousand and two, Moreal led New Orleans Renaissance and
left office with a seventy percent approval rating. A graduate
of the University of Pennsylvania with a degree in economics
and African American Studies, he also holds a law degree

(00:54):
from the Georgetown University. All right, mister Moreal, welcome back
to the show man. We haven't seen you since being
on the ground in DC at the Congressional Black Caucus.

Speaker 2 (01:08):
Man, So what has been up to.

Speaker 3 (01:09):
Since it's too long. We can't go this long, I know,
to up and connecting and have a good conversation. But hey,
thank you for having me. Always appreciate it then, always
eager to engage with the community.

Speaker 1 (01:22):
Oh, we appreciate it now, you know, we just talked
about it a bit. We're on in some new cities.
We've had a lot of growth since you've last been on.
So for folks that are just coming to the conversation,
just becoming familiar with your work nationally, do us a favor,
just a little bit.

Speaker 3 (01:41):
You know, I want everyone to know. I'm proud to
lead the National Urban League, a one and fifteen year
old national historic, civil rights and urban advocacy or the station.
We're headquartered in New York City in Harlem on one
hundred and twenty fifth Street at the Urban League Empowerment Center.
But we have a network of ninety three Urban League affiliates,

(02:04):
maybe in your hometown across the nation, through which we
serve three hundred communities in thirty six states. So we
are an advocate for civil rights and economic opportunity, and
we are a direct program provider, after school, home buy education,
job training, small business assistance, health equity. We do that

(02:25):
work in local communities. And I'm proud now to be
serving in my second decade as president of the National
Urban League. But I am a bit of a recovering politician,
having served in the Louisiana Legislature and served eight years
as mayor of the great City of New Orleans, my
beloved hometown. So you know, I bring, I think to

(02:45):
this conversation years of involvement, years of experience, but also
a real sense of where we are vis a vis
the future.

Speaker 2 (02:54):
Fantastic. I love it.

Speaker 1 (02:57):
So obviously this time of year, we're taking inventory of.

Speaker 2 (03:04):
Where we are, where we've been, where we're going.

Speaker 1 (03:06):
So, being in your position and at the helm of
one of the great civil rights organizations in this country,
what would you say is maybe one of the biggest
lessons that we've learned in twenty twenty five that will
fortify us moving forward.

Speaker 3 (03:24):
We better understand that who wins elections matters, and making
excuses about not voting is committing suicide. Yeah, you know,
refusing to vote, making excuses about voting is suicide. Because
this country respects political power and economic power open and shut,

(03:53):
and we need to always think about how to maximize
our political power. And that is not to necessarily have
to I don't vote because I'm in love with anybody.
That's not my condition. I vote because my agenda aligns
with them mostly may not adjoint completely. And the agenda

(04:14):
aligned with mostly may be inopposition to an agenda that
doesn't align with me at all or very little. Sure,
we got to be intelligent voters. We need to understand
that all of what we see the DOGE cuts, the
layoffs of black women, the attacks on diversity, equity and inclusion,

(04:40):
the militarization of American cities, stems from the outcome of
the election, and so we gotta, we gotta, we gotta
centralize that lesson. It was good that in the fall
of twenty four we had high turnout in Virginia, high
turnout in New Jersey, and the highest turno in a

(05:00):
mayor's race in New York City since nineteen sixty nine.
Those are good signs if we can sustain and increase
that across the nation. So I'm the first one to say, Hey,
voting is not an elixir, not a panacea, not a
magic wand not a super powerful pill, but it is

(05:23):
a lever of power that we have and it has
to be individuals aligned together collectively to make impact. So
I say we should learn that we should also learn
that in twenty twenty five. I've been very clear from
the very beginning that the National Urban League and other
civil rights organizations, we will continue to stand against policies

(05:47):
that hurt America, while always demonstrating a willingness to work
with anyone that wants to benefit our community. And so
I've been somewhat Not only have we seen the federal
administration take steps that are damaging, we've also seen many
many corporations that rely heavily on African American consumers step off,

(06:13):
step away, step to the side when it comes to
a commitment of fairness and a commitment of equal opportunity.
That's what DNI is. It's a synonym D and I
is fairness and equal opportunity. Let's understand what it is.
And they've sought to smash and smear the term in

(06:33):
an effort to make people fearful that diversity equity inclusion
is a preference program for black people and women. It
is not. It is not and we've got to continue
to stand up for a balanced, fair playing field when
it comes to jobs, contracts, home ownership, and opportunity. This
is where we are in America today. It's been a

(06:55):
state of emergency, but our community is strong. We're resilient.
Res I was just in Biloxi, Mississippi, with hundreds of
African American legislators, and I found the energy and the
commitment strong. We got to build it, we got to
sustain it. We have to push back, and we have
to offer an alternative vision.

Speaker 2 (07:15):
I love that well, just to make that live a
little bit more.

Speaker 1 (07:19):
It's funny because Q and I were having a conversation
recently where we talked about doctor Umar Johnson saying something
effectually what he communicated this would have been back in
twenty twenty four, was that black people should not vote
for the Democrat Kamala Harris until we get something, which
in Q's estimation was sort of putting the cart before

(07:40):
the horse. And I think that your words, in terms
of the reflection on the lessons that we learned in
twenty twenty five really help make that stand out, because
the truth is that there were a lot of people
who were dissenting.

Speaker 3 (07:55):
People understand that sentiment, but it's political suicide, right withhold
your vote? What did that get us?

Speaker 2 (08:04):
Exactly what he was saying.

Speaker 3 (08:05):
On man, that's like saying, I'm not going to breathe
the air until it's clean, but the promised me their
airs clean, then I'll breathe it. That's what it's like. Yeah,
you know, respect the sentiment, but I'm not going to
participate in political suicide.

Speaker 1 (08:24):
Yes, well, I'm glad that that's a lesson that we've
learned because that means that you know, it wasn't a
total loss. But in that same vein, I want to
ask you know, and I think I got an idea
of what your answer might be, But what do you
think that we should collectively be looking forward to in
twenty twenty six?

Speaker 3 (08:45):
So for twenty twenty six, I think it's a year
when we have to sharpen what our agenda for America
is and for the national urbanly, it revolves around what
we call the D three imperative. Okay, defend democracy, which
is a defense and a promotion of voting rights and
civic participation and all of the principles of democracy. Not

(09:06):
because democracy is perfect. Well, because it's better than autocracy,
sure better than a monarchy. Number two, we have to
demand diversity. By demanding diversity, we're demanding equal participation in
the economics of this country. We've never had it, but
we've got to continue to fight for it. And the
third is defeat poverty. Why does the richest nation on earth,

(09:31):
thirty trillion in GDP, still tolerate Americans that can't pay
their bills? Don't we have the wherewithals, Don't we have
the smarts? And what we've done is we've created a
gilded class of billionaires, about a million of them, right, no, no, no,
about a thousand of them. And too many Americans, even

(09:53):
those that thought of themselves as being middle class, a
working class, are being left behind, work on jobs, they
worked two jobs. Rents too high, mortgage is too high.
Taking care of parents, so many people are taking care
of parents, right, they may be taking parents and children simultaneously,

(10:14):
so economically, there were more middle class Americans in nineteen
seventy than there are today. The things are relative. You know,
in nineteen seventy you could be middle class. You didn't
have three devices. Yeah, you know, you live by the
standard of the times and so I think it's unacceptable.

(10:37):
I mean, Congress just passed one big ugly bill. It
gave massive benefits to wealthy people. And now when you
score it fiscally, the person making fifty thousand dollars a
year is going to be paid seven hundred dollars more
taxes a year. The billionaire got a cut, the multimillionaire
got a cut, major companies got cut. Why to politicians

(11:04):
even embrace policies that put pain on working, middle and
poor Americans.

Speaker 1 (11:16):
Well, you know, the point that you made about our
economic vitality in the seventies is something that I was
studying recently, because between the fifties and the seventies, that
was the only time in history, it was in this
country too, the only time in history where a person
could work a normal job and become rich based on

(11:39):
simply their labor alone. And it hasn't been It wasn't
that way before, it hasn't been that way since. And
it is philosophies like trickle down economics from the Reagan administration.
And then we see that again in the big ugly Bill,
where these tax benefits go to the wealthiest faction of
the country with the expectation that they're going to create

(12:01):
jobs or drive innovation, and seldom does that innovation or
work jobs, et cetera trickle down to you know, the
working class in a way that's meaningful. And this is
why we see us lagging behind the wealthiest group of
individuals in this country who are concentrating and hoarding the wealth.

(12:22):
I think it's forty percent of all the wealth generated
in last year of this country went to just a
handful of billionaires and the rest of us are left
to deal with the rest of the economy, which is crazy.

Speaker 3 (12:33):
When you think about one thousand billionaires in America, there
you go, Okay, this is a very small group of people.
It wouldn't fill Madison Square Garden, you know it wouldn't.
It wouldn't fill an average high school in America, right,
I think it's eight hundred and thirteen fourteen fifteen buildings. Look,

(12:56):
I'm not bashing a billionaire. I am bashing systems, programs,
and policies which allow such an enormous creation of wealth
without a progressive tax code that compels them to put
back into the country that helped make them rich and great. Sure,
you don't get there by yourself. You don't become rich

(13:20):
on your own. You know, the taxpayers have built a
first class interstate highway system so e commerce trucks can
traverse right. The taxpayers have supported the building of a
healthcare system, imperfect as it will, which has allowed people

(13:43):
to live much longer lives. The taxpayers fund a civil
aviation system, in part that creates an opportunity for people
to fly on commercial jets and private planes to get
from city to city in less than a few hours.
The taxpayers have funded a public education system, albeit not perfect,

(14:07):
and in many respects investments in college education that helped
produce a highly talented class of people. We got to
understand that the taxpayers' investments enable the creation of wealth
in America and continue this rhetoric that every public school

(14:32):
is a failure. Know that that's the healthcare system is
an abject failure. It doesn't work for people who don't
have any money. And many, many schools in suburban and
rural America work very well and produce a lot of
presidential scholars. May not work well.

Speaker 4 (14:51):
In urban communities, in underresourced communities, But we got to
understand you don't get to that in normality of wealth
without help from others.

Speaker 3 (15:04):
You know, look, Musk, people talk about Musk. Musk is
a government contractor. You know, he has been chosen to
commercialize technologies that were created with government research. See what
we don't have going on in the public square enough
to day is truth telling, fact telling. You know. I'm

(15:28):
saying this not to bash Musk, but to take some
of these guys off their thrones. Some of these guys
on it. I'm so brilliant. I'm the smartest guy in
the world. Man. Anybody that says that I question.

Speaker 2 (15:50):
Their judgment, and rightfully so.

Speaker 1 (15:54):
I feel like this is a good sort of segue
into asking your thoughts about the election of Mom Donnie
in New York and really democratic socialism in general, because
it's kind of at a point where people are investigating

(16:15):
and I would imagine seeing it.

Speaker 2 (16:16):
I think I mentioned that.

Speaker 3 (16:18):
The democratic socialism. To be honest, I'm not clear what
it always means in terms of policy beyond a brand. Right,
But let me say this, Zoran Mamdami ran a brilliant campaign, Okay,
and let me tell you why he ran a brilliant campaign.
He did something that Barack Obama did on the left

(16:42):
center left, what Donald Trump did on the center right,
and what all of my campaigns were may or were
predicated on, and that is to expand the electorate, to
go after people who historically don't vote. And in my
Dommi's case, he did that in the primary and got
a voter pool where thirty percent of the voters were

(17:04):
first time voters. So what he did was able to
enthuse and stimulate a set of voters that historically have
not voted. Now, to his credit, mister Trump did that
on the right. He got rural voters. He got rural
conservative leaning voters to turn out in higher numbers in

(17:28):
twenty sixteen, twenty twenty and twenty twenty four. So, Mamdami,
I think, you know, I think what I say about
him is this great hope, a lot of enthusiasm in
many many places, some concerns in fears in other places.
Let me say how mayors are judge. Mayors are judged
by results, you know. Mayors are not judged by ideas.

(17:51):
Legislators sometimes are judge by ideas. Executives are judge by results.
So for Madami, the question a year from now, twenty
four months from now, how will the City of New
York be performing on his watch, but I think he
surprised some people. I've had an opportunity to have several

(18:12):
conversations with him, and I find him to be quite thoughtful.
I find him to be I think, committed to his philosophy.
But I think he's got a pragmatic side to him.
And I think that's important for a mayor, right, A
man has to have a pragmatic side because you're gonna
be judging whether you can get things done, not because

(18:32):
you can flow big ideas the wather, you can take
those ideas and shape them and execute them.

Speaker 2 (18:40):
I love that.

Speaker 1 (18:42):
Yeah, I've been kind of peeking behind the curtain there,
just following those campaigns as they were coming together, and
I know that that you're absolutely right that not only
was it true of Mom Donnie, but you're right about
Donald Trump as well and Barack Obama taking these non

(19:04):
traditional avenues to get to voters that feel like they've
been disenfranchised, whether they be first time voters or historically
Democratic or Republican voters, and they feel left behind by
their party. And so all three of these names have
been able to galvanize these different groups.

Speaker 2 (19:21):
And so my.

Speaker 1 (19:22):
Hope is because we covered a story where there are
seven black women running for Senate seats in twenty twenty six,
and so my hope is that these things are well
learned by politicians that we want to see you shape
the future, especially after having what many of us consider
to be a political more than the political setback with

(19:44):
the re election of Donald Trump, those of us that
espouse more progressive agenda. Now, speaking of Trump, I know
Q wanted to drop a few bars about black celebrities
in the MAGA movement because they borrow from our struggle
only to betray us in the end.

Speaker 5 (20:00):
Cute black celebrities, black billionaires, black multimillionaires, black taste makers,
black culture creators who came from these communities anchored and struggle,
suddenly standing arm in arm with MAGA, a movement that

(20:25):
has repeatedly championed policies, rhetoric, violence, and systems that specifically
harm Black people, suddenly telling the rest of us stop complaining,
stop playing the victim, just work harder. Both sides are

(20:50):
the same, that's my favorite. Meanwhile, they're smiling next to
people who have openly legislated against our humanity. And this
is not a coincidence. This is design. MAGA doesn't use
politics to convert or recruit. It's something that happens psychologically.

(21:18):
Maga has learned something powerful. If you want political loyalty
from black celebrity, don't even talk about policy. Start with
their pain. Start with you've been misunderstood. They try to
silence you. You're too powerful. That's why they attack you.

(21:43):
You're brave for standing alone. You're not a follower, you're
not a sheep. You're an independent thinker. They very subtly
and sometimes aggressively lean into ego, resentment, isolation, even insecurity,

(22:07):
and the universal human desire to feel seen and understood.
They speak to the wound and not to the mind.
Because once you can win someone over emotionally, well, their
politics follow. Once the ego is flattered, here comes the poison.

(22:30):
You didn't succeed because of opportunity. You succeeded because you're better.
You didn't make it because the community supported you. You
made it because you were above them. You don't need
that ladder anymore, so why not kick it down. They
turned their success into superiority. They turned privilege into proof

(22:57):
of exceptionalism, earn distance from struggle and to identity elevation.
And once someone believes that we collectively watch as their
empathy shrinks, community feels optional, solidarity with anyone feels beneath them.

(23:20):
And then MAGA looks at each other and smiles. Mission accomplished.
They rebrand that betrayal as courage. You're brave for thinking different.
You're such a strong freethinker. You're standing up against the mob.

(23:41):
You're not like other black people. Notice the language. They
don't say you are one of us, They just say
you're not one of them. Psychological warfare, rewriting what it
means to belong. It relocates identity. It isolates them from us,

(24:06):
while giving them applause as a substitute for connection. They
offer something dangerous to rams protection the mainstream world. Like us,
we demand accountability that makes people feel attacked. Sometimes mac

(24:28):
is no such thing. They celebrate recklessness, They defend misinformation,
They protect ego. They don't even bother to question morality anymore.
Will never turn on you, they say, will protect you

(24:49):
and stand by you no matter what you say, no
matter what you do. You're safe with us. But blind
loyalty is not love, and with MAGA, it's more like
a lease than any sense of ownership, and the payment
political allegiance. MAGA does not chase black celebrities because they
support black advancement. They chase them because they need the

(25:13):
cultural credibility that comes with it, confusion inside black communities,
division where unity once existed, proof that they aren't racists. See,
we got one shit with us. See, so racism must
not be real.

Speaker 3 (25:32):
Right.

Speaker 5 (25:34):
They don't want black voices, they want black shields. This
is the playbook. Validate pain, inflate ego, promise protection, provides spotlight,
separate from community, and then hand them a microphone to
punch down at their own people. So let's call it

(25:56):
what it is. It is not independent thinking, it's not bravery,
it's not enlightenment. This is a co op ego manipulation,
exploitation of trauma and using black pain as a recruitment tool,
convincing people who made it up the ladder to pull
it up behind them and then call it strength. MAGA

(26:18):
doesn't love these celebrities, Ramses. They just love what these
celebrities can do for them. And when they're done, as
we see, they will drop them just as fast as
they embrace them.