Gwendolyn Grant, President and CEO of the Urban League of Greater Kansas City, discusses the concerns, aspirations and goals of her organization. 

The National Urban League was founded in 1910. Ms. Grant became CEO of their Kansas City affiliate in 1995. Their mission is "To enable African Americans and other disadvantaged persons to secure economic self-reliance, parity, power and civil rights." They have programs to improve education for youth, to help adults in career management and wealth creation, to improve access to health care, and civil rights. In 2022, over half of their budget went to their "Project Wellness" to improve access to healthcare for underserved urban communities, but they get more media coverage of their work on police accountability. 

Ms. Grant convenes the Urban League’s Police Accountability Task Force and has helped organize numerous efforts to improve the Kansas City, Missouri, Police Department. This included suing the city of Kansas City, Missouri, and the Board of Police Commissioners, claiming that state control of the Kansas City Police Department is an unfunded mandate that violates the 1980 Hancock Amendment to the Missouri state constitution. (This is different from Johnson v. Parson, discussed on Radio Active Magazine March 19, which is in federal court, alleging denial of equal protection of the laws promised by the 1868 Fourteenth Amendment.)

She has won numerous honors including the National Urban League’s Whitney M. Young Leadership Award for Advancing Racial Equity and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference Community Service Award.

Ms. Grant is interviewed by Radio Active Magazine regular Spencer Graves. 



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