NEW ORLEANS (AP) - Shoring up policies that promote diversity, equity and inclusion and destroying a proposed conservative guidebook that seeks to dismantle long-fought-for civil rights in America are just two of the challenges National Urban League President Marc H. Morial set forth Thursday to the group's allies.
Morial, who opened the group's annual conference earlier this week in his hometown of New Orleans where he also served as mayor, urged attendees to take a stand and send a message to those "who are plotting, those who are conspiring, those who are working morning, noon and night to dismantle progress."
"Not on our watch," Morial said, amid applause from those gathered inside a packed room at the city's Hyatt Regency hotel. "Not on our watch will we stand aside, fail to fight or be just spectators."
"You know, when you hear someone say that's a DEI hire, I want you to say ´Yes. They are determined, energetic and intelligent,' " Morial said. "We´re not going to walk back from the term. We´re going to embrace the term for what it means."
Morial thanked the urban league's board of directors for stepping up after "the U.S. Supreme Court struck a blow for affirmative action and the subsequent insanity and madness of the attacks on diversity, equity and inclusion."
"They made a commitment that their companies would not retreat, they would not backtrack," he said. "They would continue to stand up for DEI because it's what's best for America."
Morial chided companies that he said bowed to bullying by right-wing extremists and abandoned DEI policies.
"We are offended by fearful and intimidated companies like John Deere and Tractor Supply who have abandoned their fiduciary duty to their stakeholders and their duty to their customers, who represent every community in America," he said.
Morial called on Deere & Co CEO John C. May and Tractor Supply President and CEO Hal Lawton to
reinstate their DEI programs, noting that their retreat was objectively bad for business.
"We know that DEI policies help companies become more profitable, more innovative, and more resilient," Morial said. "Whatever short-term political goodwill these companies have bought with this irresponsible decision will come at far too high a price for their employees, their customers, and their shareholders."
Morial continued in his State of the National Urban League address, saying democracy hangs in the balance this fall. He called Project 2025 - the Heritage Foundation´s handbook for the next Republican administration - "a dangerous and repressive agenda" that is "900 pages of hate and garbage. Nine hundred pages of poppycock parading as an intellectual document."
"But if you walk back in history, you'll find that Project 2025 has a granddaddy ... the old Southern Manifesto," he said.
Morial noted that document was birthed after the Brown v. Board of Education U.S. Supreme Court decision in 1954, when a group of Southern politicians drafted a response and put together what they called a "declaration of constitutional principles."
"It was simply a vow to uphold racial segregation and white supremacy signed by 19 senators and 82 representatives from the South," Morial said. "But Project 2025 goes even further. It would implement a social hierarchy that oppresses not only people of color, but women, non-Christians, the LGBTQ community, disabled Americans, working families and immigrants. It is imperative that we dedicate ourselves to defeating and destroying Project 2025. It is a dangerous blueprint that is dripping with hatred and contempt. But don't just oppose it for that. Oppose it because it is anti-American and anti-democracy."
Morial said those issues will carry into the fall elections, which include a presidential decision as well as other significant races in Congress and beyond.
He asked those gathered to commit to the group's D3 Call to Action: Defend Democracy, Demand Diversity and Defeat Poverty.
Rhonda Spears Bell, the urban league's senior vice president and chief marketing officer, said the Project 2025 agenda is "rooted in white supremacist ideology."
"We must fight back, and we're calling on you, right now, to act now," she said, urging people to text "Stop Project 2025" to 52886 to learn what can be done to "counteract this dangerous threat to our democracy."
The National Urban League has also launched a non-partisan "Reclaim Your Vote" campaign ahead of the fall elections focusing on educating voters, registering them to vote and mobilizing them to get to the polls, particularly in Georgia, North Carolina, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Michigan, the organization said.
Morial also discussed controversial policies pushed and put in place by Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry"Here in Louisiana, there's a right-wing, extremist governor who seems determined to compete with (Gov. Greg) Abbott in Texas and (Gov. Ron) DeSantis in Florida in a race to the bottom when it comes to civil and human rights," Morial said.
In six months, Landry has repealed successful criminal justice reform, signed a "barbaric" law allowing the surgical castration of certain
sex offenders, deprived law enforcement of a vital tool by wiping out concealed carry permits, making it easier for violent and unstable people to carry guns and he's forcing a religious agenda in the classrooms which now are required to display the 10 Commandments, Morial said.
"Put the 10 Commandments up in your house. Put the Constitution up in our classrooms," he said amid applause.
"We reject this direction in this state," Morial said. "We reject it based on history and principle. This is a multiracial and multicultural state with an incredible background and tapestry of people from many parts of the world. When it is united, it is strong. When it is divided, it can not stand. So we say to the governor today, and I have never met the governor, I challenge you sir to be a governor for all. I challenge you to be a governor for everyone in this state, not just for some."
An email to Landry's office seeking comment on Morial's remarks was not immediately returned Thursday.
The conference ends Saturday.