Urban League’s Leader Awarded Its Highest Honor

At a star-studded ceremony Thursday night, the Los Angeles Urban League presented its highest honor to a man described as “one of our own.”

John W. Mack, who has headed the organization since 1969, received the 20th annual Whitney M. Young Jr. Award at the Century Plaza Hotel event. The award is given to individuals who have made significant contributions in advancing human and civil rights for African-Americans and other minorities.

In accepting the award, Mack called for equal justice for blacks and other minorities. “L.A. is tense and uptight with some people bordering on hysteria,” he said. “I just pray for real justice” in the Rodney G. King beating case.

“This prestigious award symbolizes the tremendous admiration and respect we have for his leadership in the quest for equal opportunity for all minorities,” said William Rusnack, the Urban League’s board chairman and president of Arco Transportation.

“John’s lifelong devotion to the causes of human equality and justice is the embodiment of the Urban League’s mission,” Rusnack said.

Over the years, Mack has encouraged local firms to join into partnership programs with the Urban League to provide jobs and job training for minorities. He expanded the Urban League’s Data Processing Center, which trains workers in the computer field, and set up the Urban League’s Milken Family Literacy and Youth Training Center, which provides tutorial assistance to students from third grade through high school.

He has served on the boards of many organizations, including Rebuild L.A. and the UCLA Chancellor’s Board of Visitors.

Mack said Thursday night that the Urban League is working with Toyota to establish a program to train 100 minority automobile technicians and with Arco on a program to develop minority entrepreneurs.

Mayor Tom Bradley, a previous winner of the award, was lavish in his praise for Mack. “He has given us 24 years of dedicated service to this community,” the mayor said. “He is an innovative leader who’s produced more job-training programs than (the leader of any other Urban League) branch in the United States.”