RSVP : A Night That Left Them Speechless

Bringing people together and getting them to act in unison are not necessarily the same. The crowd that filled the Century Plaza Hotel ballroom to its rim Thursday night for the Los Angeles Urban League 22nd annual Whitney M. Young Jr. award dinner was clearly delighted to be there; it just wasn’t much inclined to stick to the schedule.

“I’m the person who drew the short straw so you’ll be spared some of my thoughts,” said League President John W. Mack, as he trimmed down his planned speech so that the evening’s honoree, Gladys Knight, and the evening’s performer, Patti LaBelle, could make their scheduled flights out of town; this after a great deal of meeting and greeting and trouble finding table seatings in the vast, chockablock ballroom had delayed the start of the evening’s program.

Knight had been missing from the photo-op during the pre-dinner cocktail hour and arrived in the ballroom too late for the head table introductions, but she cheerfully vamped at the podium when LaBelle didn’t appear on stage on cue.

“Patti, sister, honey girl, get the tape on and let’s go,” she teased, while Mack noted, “I could have finished my speech.”

Last year’s honoree, Los Angeles Police Chief Willie L. Williams, presented the Whitney M. Young, Jr. Award to Knight for being, “a positive person and a bridge builder who brings people together.”

Earlier, Williams, wearing the Los Angeles Police Department blue support ribbon on his dinner jacket, had handed over one of the lapel pins to Mack as O. J. Simpson defense attorney and veteran party-goer Johnnie L. Cochran Jr. attracted the usual attention from news crews and reporters. He even managed to put on hold the fire marshals’ stringent security regulations by stepping in front of lights and cameras in the usually restricted area outside the ballroom.

Former Mayor Tom Bradley and his wife, Ethel, and Assemblyman Willie Brown were also among those present at the event, which raised $650,000 to support the Urban League’s programs and services for more than 81,000 disenfranchised and needy people.

Mack said, “We will include everyone at the table of opportunity and demonstrate to our nation and the world that diversity and democracy can work for all individuals.”