Michael Lawson
President & CEO
Los Angeles Urban League
Business.
Careers
entertainment
For 100 years Los Angeles Urban League has served as a powerful advocate for African-Americans and other minorities by ensuring our communities have access to careers with living wages, opportunities to start and grow businesses, and clear pathways to personal and professional growth.
Events
Due to the pandemic our events are limited to online participation. Check back for more information.
Recent News
CA Steps Towards Ending the Cash Bail System
The current cash bail system in California is classist, racist, and unfair, and the California Supreme Court recently agreed to make a change that will address some but not all of the ills that befall our system.
“We Are Able to Breathe Again”
On April 20, 2021, after 44 witnesses and 15 days of testimony, we held a collective breath while waiting for the jury to render its verdict on Derek Chauvin, the police officer who killed George Floyd by grinding his knee into the back of George Floyd’s neck for 9 minutes and 29 seconds…
How Maryland’s New Police Reform Bill Can Lead Us Forward
This week as Maryland took a bold and essential step toward meaningful police reform. The Maryland legislature overrode the Republican governor’s veto and adopted landmark legislation that will set new rules regarding the use of force, establish new investigative procedures, and apply robust disciplinary outcomes to police officers who violate these rules.
Shame on Kroger for Closing LA Area Stores
The announced closures of five grocery stores in the Los Angeles area by Cincinnati-based Kroger is a shameful and callous act of corporate greed. Kroger made the announcements shortly after the Cities of Long Beach and Los Angeles voted to provide frontline grocery...
Protecting Voting Rights in the New Jim Crow Era
Last week, Georgia Governor Brian Kemp signed into law a shameful law that places Jim Crow era-like restrictions on voting and gives unconscionable oversight and control over the very elections that determine their fate.
‘So be it! See To It!’, Honoring the Everlasting Legacy of Octavia Butler
As we celebrate Women’s History Month, we cannot help but marvel at the once-in-a-lifetime literary mind of Octavia Butler. Her sci-fi novels transported us through different worlds and realities and continue to remind us that time is what you make of it. Passing away...
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