Marc Morial

He created the Urban Youth Empowerment Program , providing educational assistance, skills training and on-the-job experience to at-risk young adults. In 2006, Morial launched Project Ready, an after-school program providing enhanced academic support to high school students in preparation for post-secondary education.

In 2004, Morial added a new metric, the Equality Index, to the League's annual State of Black America. Based upon the Three-Fifths Compromise counting African Americans as three-fifths of a person for purposes of taxation and representation in Congress, the Equality Index measures the economic and social status of Black Americans relative to whites.

In 2003, Morial was selected to head the National Urban League, one of the nation's largest and most influential historic civil rights organizations. He immediately established a five-point Empowerment Agenda focused on Education and Youth, Economic Empowerment, Health and Quality of Life, Civic Engagement, and Civil Rights and Racial Justice. By the end of 2003, through a partnership with Stonehenge Corporation, Morial had secured an allocation of $127.5 million in New Markets Tax Credits, allowing the creation of the National Urban League Empowerment Fund.

Two accomplishments of his administration dealt with professional sports: NBA basketball returned to the city after Morial orchestrated negotiations for the league's Charlotte Hornets to relocate there. Secondly, following the September 11, 2001 attacks, Morial persuaded the organizers of a large automotive exposition to change its date so that Super Bowl XXXVI (held at the Louisiana Superdome) could be played one week later than originally scheduled, enabling the NFL to keep its post-season tournament fully intact. The week of regular-season games slated to be played on the weekend following the attacks had to be postponed and was transferred to the end of the regular season.

From 2001 to 2002, Morial was President of the United States Conference of Mayors.

From 2001 to 2002, Morial was President of the United States Conference of Mayors, serving as chief spokesperson for America's cities. After the September 11 Attacks, he led the effort to create a National Safety and Security Plan for American Cities, including the recommendation for a United States Department of Homeland Security and the federalization of airport security screens.

Based on his achievements in reducing crime and reforming the police department, Morial easily won re-election to a second term in 1998 New Orleans Mayoral Election. In the 1998 Mayoral Election, Morial received 79% of the votes, while his opponents Paul D. Borrello received 1% and Kathleen Cresson received 20%. Like his father, Dutch Morial, Marc Morial made an attempt to amend the city charter to run for a third term as mayor in 2002. It was tied to his campaign to save the New Orleans Public School System by assuming control of the city's public schools to turn around their performance. He was trying the approach of other mayors, such as Richard M. Daley in Chicago. But, 61% of the voters rejected the proposed amendment to the New Orleans City Charter.

In the 1994 election for mayor, Morial defeated Donald Mintz with 54% of the vote. He campaigned with the promise to "clean out City Hall with a shovel not a broom." The issue of endemic corruption in the city's Police Department was addressed after Morial hired Richard Pennington as Police Superintendent. On Pennington's first day of work, Morial introduced the new superintendent to investigators from the FBI. Together they worked to rout out corruption in the New Orleans Police Department. During the first seven years of his time as mayor, Morial's approval rating stayed at or near 70%, and near 100% at all times among black residents.

After an unsuccessful run for Congress in 1990, in which he came in second place and was defeated in a runoff by Bill Jefferson, Morial was elected to the Louisiana State Senate in 1992, where he served until 1994.

The growth of the city's tourist and convention sector accelerated appreciably during Morial's mayoralty, boosted in part by the general economic growth of the United States in the late 1990s. Tourism boomed during Marc Morial's mayoralty; the city's downtown core saw the construction of 14 new hotels during his tenure. This development was due in part to the much-publicized reduction in New Orleans’ high crime rate through the effective leadership of Morial's Superintendent of Police, Richard Pennington. Of particular significance was the 60% reduction achieved in the city's violent crime rate. These real gains enabled a resurgence of interest and investment in the city's older historic neighborhoods. New Orleans benefited from an increase in downtown population. The number of households within the city limits stabilized for the first time since beginning their decline in the 1960s, a significant accomplishment. Morial also secured bond issues for street improvements, the Canal Street streetcar line, and an expansion of the city's convention center.

As an associate attorney in the New Orleans firm Barham and Churchill, Morial in 1985 was the youngest lawyer to argue and win a major case before the Louisiana Supreme Court, State v. Shropshire, which established police reports as public records.

In 1985, Morial established a private law practice in New Orleans. He was named plaintiff and Chair fo the Plaintiff's Committee for Chisholm v. Edwards, which applied the Voting Rights Act of 1965 to judicial elections and led to the election of Louisiana's first Black Supreme Court Justice.

In 1980 Morial earned a bachelor's degree in economics at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, where he was a member of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity and co-director of Stepping Stones, which assisted Black students with resume preparation, interview tips and arranging interviews with recruiters. Morial earned a Juris Doctor degree in 1983 from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. At Georgetown, he was elected first-year Delegate to the Student Bar Association and served as a member and head of fundraising for the Black Law Students Association.

Marc Haydel Morial /ˌ m ɔːr i ˈ æ l / (born January 3, 1958) is an American political and civic leader and the current president of the National Urban League. Morial served as mayor of New Orleans, from 1994 to 2002. He is married to Michelle Miller, who has won awards as a CBS News Correspondent.

Marc Morial was born January 3, 1958 to Ernest N. "Dutch" Morial, a lawyer, legislator, jurist and later the first Black mayor of New Orleans, and Sybil (Haydel) Morial, an elementary school teacher and later university administrator. He is the second of five children. He was raised in Pontchartrain Park, a subdivision of New Orleans built in the waning years of segregation to provide homeownership opportunities for African Americans while thwarting the integration of the adjoining neighborhood of Gentilly Woods. Morial was among the first African American students admitted to the city's Christian Brothers School and Jesuit High School.