The Urban League of Springfield Inc. held the centennial celebration Saturday night at the MassMutual Center. Local politicians and community figures were on hand to congratulate the organization.
SPRINGFIELD – The Urban League of Springfield Inc. held its centennial celebration Saturday night at the MassMutual Center, commemorating 100 years of promoting education and career aspiration, as well as looking forward to the future.
The Urban League focuses on development in four key areas: educational development, health and wellness, financial knowledge and wealth access, and civic engagement.
“The goal of Urban League is building strong communities by developing the people within them. We execute on that goal by providing services and initiatives in critical areas that impact the quality of life of any given community, but particularly the communities our constituents live in,” said Urban League Springfield Inc. President Henry Thomas III.
The celebration consisted of a dinner, ceremony, entertainment and dancing, and featured celebrities such as R&B recording artist Phil Perry and Grammy-nominated flutist Sherry Winston.
Gov. Deval Patrick and Sen. Elizabeth Warren both sent videos congratulating Urban League on its success. Massachusetts politicians, such as senatorial hopeful Edward Markey and Sen. William “Mo” Cowan, were also in attendance.
“I congratulate the Urban League on 100 years of building the community and serving people. … We are the Bay State, but we’re also the Brain State; we invest in the brains of our children and our people,” said Markey.
Other community leaders and sponsors were on hand, congratulating the Urban League on its years of success.
“Your organization continues to thrive and remain relevant and able to face today’s challenges,” said Greg Deavens, senior vice president and comptroller for MassMutual.
Two scholarships were awarded to students showing outstanding academic success and community service initiatives.
“We’re celebrating the past, the legacy that has been established by the Urban League, because it is certainly a significant milestone to have a century of service. We’ve served over a million people in those hundred years, so that’s something to be proud of and celebrate. However, the past is not sufficient to guarantee the future, so we are going to talk about and share what our plans are for the future,” said Thomas.
In the past, the Urban League has played a key role in getting minorities into the work force. The first black police officer in Springfield was hired as a result of the efforts of the Urban League, Thomas said.
“We have opened up an enormous amount of doors for the first time to access employment and career opportunities. We have provided thousands of youth opportunities to receive education or remediation to support their academic progress in school,” said Thomas.
“I think that we have created an atmosphere of possibility within the African-American community when often times, because of disenfranchisement, people can get discouraged and feel that there is little hope for change or progress. But there is hope, and things can change. So we think that there’s been a lot of progress around race relations and social development. There’s a lot more to do, but the progress unarguably can be attributed to the kind of work that the Urban League has done in collaboration with many other great organizations like the NAACP,” Thomas said.