National Urban League Leadership Series: Lester Blackwell Granger

Introduction
When Lester Blackwell Granger was born in 1896, the United States was struggling to find a balance between its core values and how it treated its African American citizens. Granger's parents recognized the challenge they faced raising children in Newport News, Virginia and decided to move their family to Newark, New Jersey, where there were better educational opportunities and racial differences were more tolerated.

Granger's Tenure
He then joined national office in New York as the business manager for Opportunity: A Journal of Negro Life and by 1940, Granger had become the executive secretary of the National Urban League and succeeded Eugene Kinckle Jones as the executive director in 1941.

Building on his time in the U.S. military, where he experienced, first-hand, the discrimination young men faced when returning home from war, Granger spent his tenure as an advocate for the equal rights of those serving in the military and African Americans employed across the federal government.

His support of A. Philip Randolph's proposed 1941 March on Washington, led to President Franklin D. Roosevelt's Executive Order 8802, which banned discrimination based on race in firms with federal contracts. As a former army man, Granger also advocated for the desegregation of the U.S. military.

In response to the rise in new opportunities, the Urban League launched the Pilot Placement Project in 1948, underwritten by the Rosenwald Fund, to train and recruit young African American professionals from HBCUs. The industrial relations offices of the national office and the affiliate network tracked the progress of each recruited employee and managed a database of candidates.

This led to a series of career conferences held at HBCU's managed by the Urban League from the 50's through the 1980's. However, the advancements in the life of African-Americans in the 1950's led to a period of racial tension. Frustrated with unfair treatment in the South, Black Americans used tactics like the bus boycott in Montgomery to stand up to racism and oppression. While organizations like the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) took on a more aggressive approach, Granger joined A. Philip Randolph's Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters with Roy Wilkins of the NAACP and Martin Luther King Jr. to push civil rights legislation with President Dwight D. Eisenhower.

Despite the challenges Granger faced fighting for racial equality, the Urban League grew steadily under this leadership with strong partnerships with corporate America, elected officials and in communities across America.