About
The Mississippi Urban League works to create sustainable pathways to health equity, improved educational outcomes, and economic empowerment as a means to elevate the standard of living for those Mississippians existing in historically underserved communities.
We empower people of color and others to embrace who they are,
decide their future, and join the fight to change their community.
Our Mission
The Mississippi Urban League helps African-Americans and others in Mississippi’s historically underserved communities achieve their highest true social parity, economic self-reliance, power, and civil rights
Our History
The Jackson Urban League, Incorporated was founded as an affiliate of the National Urban League in 1967. The Jackson Urban League’s offices were initially located at the site where today stands the McCoy Federal Building, the first federal building in the United States to honor an African American physician/activist Dr. A.H. McCoy. In 1967 the site also included Dr. McCoy and other professional African Americans such as the Jackson Advocate, Dr. Redmond, Security Life Insurance Company, and civil rights attorneys Carsie Hall, R. Jess Brown, and Jack Young, Sr.
In 2016 the Jackson Urban League became dormant and dropped from the landscape of MS Civil Rights organizations. However, in 2018 Beneta Burt, a former Jackson Urban League President / CEO, reconnect as an affiliate of the National Urban League through Mississippi Roadmap to Health Equity, an organization she founded in 2003. Burt, former Jackson Urban League President / CEO from 1994 - 2006, launched MS Roadmap and served as its Executive Director when the National Urban League invited the organization to join its affiliate ranks. In 2018 MS Roadmap joined the National Urban League family as the Mississippi Urban League, Inc., thus expanding its efforts statewide.