About Us

Organized in 1919, the Urban League of Greater Kansas City is a community based not-for-profit organization.

Our Mission: To achieve equality and promote socio economic opportunity to improve the quality of life of African Americans and others.

Our Vision: The Urban League of Greater Kansas City will be recognized as the premier race relations organization that sets the agenda to drive change in the areas of education, personal, professional and economic development.

Our Focus: We will achieve our vision by:

• Conducting research and publishing documents on critical issues
• Serving as a catalyst to improve race relations
• Advocating for systems change
• Planning strategically to respond to community needs
• Delivering targeted human services
• Forming collaborations and partnerships to maximize resources and to foster an open community
• Employing innovative strategies to generate resources to address unmet community needs

Our History:

Empowering Communities and Changing Lives defines the legacy of the Urban League of Greater Kansas City from the time it was founded in 1919 as the Urban League for Negroes of Kansas City and continuing today.  Established as a social service agency to address the myriad of challenges facing black immigrant workers and black soldiers returning from the war, the League crafted an empowerment movement that worked to create a climate of equality and opportunity for people of color in a segregated society.

The League’s founders believed that employment, vocational skills training and education would empower blacks and help to build bridges of respect across the color line, thus proving that blacks could co-exist in harmony with whites in the workplace.  Founded on the principles of equality and opportunity, the Urban League of Greater Kansas City was incorporated in 1920 and worked aggressively in the early years for equal rights for blacks seeking to improve the social and economic conditions in their lives

The Urban League of Greater Kansas City is a community based not-for-profit organization governed by a volunteer interracial Board of Directors. Today, the Urban League’s empowerment agenda focuses on four program areas: education; employment; race relations; and leadership development.