Fort Wayne Urban League

Social Service Organization MISSION The mission of the Fort Wayne Urban League is to enable urban residents, as well as others, to secure economic self-reliance, parity, power and civil rights.” HISTORY In 1920 a small group of far-sighted Fort Wayne African Americans, noting the rising throngs of their fellowmen moving northward from the South, decided the new immigrants needed an agency to help them cope with problems they met in their new environment. They formed the Fort Wayne Community Association, precursor of the present Fort Wayne Urban League. They called their home the Phyllis Wheatley Community Center and worked primarily to provide organized recreation and social groups. In 1948 the National Urban League conducted a study of the local organization’s needs and potential. Its far-seeing leaders knew that to remain a viable organization it must develop programs geared more specifically to housing, employment and industrial relations, community organization and race relations. As a result, on October 1, 1949, the Phyllis Wheatley Community Center was disbanded and the association became known only as the Fort Wayne Urban League. Today, the Fort Wayne Urban League continues to fulfill its mission through the delivery of programs that help us work to close the economic and education achievement gaps that exist between the African American community and the majority community.”