Mick Unplugged
Empowerment Through Action: Marc Morial's Strategies for Community Transformation
17 Jul 2025
Chapter 1: What inspired Marc Morial's commitment to civil rights?
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Welcome to Mic Unplugged, the number one podcast for self-improvement, leadership, and relentless growth. No fluff, no filters, just hard-hitting truths, unstoppable strategies, and the mindset shifts that separate the best from the rest. Ready to break limits? Let's go. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to another powerful episode of Make Unplugged.
And today we're going to get personal and emotional. My guest today led New Orleans through rebirth and now leads a national charge for equity, justice, and economic power. He's a civil rights titan, an author and CEO, and his impact echoes from city halls to Capitol Hill. He's someone who's had a profound mark on my life, and we're going to talk about that a little bit today. He's commanding.
He's the visionary. He is unyielding. He is Mr. Mark Morial. Mark, how are you doing today, sir?
Hey, I'm good to be with you, Mick. Thank you very much. Thanks for the generosity of the introduction, too.
Man, I told you offline, I am the honored one. Man, the impact that you have had, not just on me, but I'm going to say millions of others, is second to none. The man that you are, the leader that you are, but most importantly, the heart that you have and the inspiration that you showcase. Brother, you mean the world to me, Mark.
Oh, man, thank you for saying that. And I... Look, I stand on the shoulders of others. I always want people to know that that animates my spirit. And it is ruled by life, which is observation of others who play leadership roles in my community that I grew up with, in my family, but also on the national stage. they've always been inspirations to me.
And I just appreciate the chance to continue to serve and put people first. You know, in this work, you have to be a public servant. You got to love people. You got to love them with all of their, you know, good, bad, and ugly. Because we all have good, bad, and ugly in us. So I'm always, you know, honored and stand on the shoulders of others.
You know, I was a young guy and because of my father and mother's involvement in civil rights and politics, I got a chance to I kind of tagged along, saw things that. You know, childcare was you come with me to the NAACP meeting. You come with me to the voter registration drive. You come with me while I run around town. You know, that was childcare.
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Chapter 2: How did Morial transform New Orleans during his mayoral tenure?
You gotta go. We ain't got no babysitting. You gotta come with me. And, you know, in those times, Sometimes you are aggravated. Man, why am I? I want to be home with my friends. I want to be on the block. I want to be playing football. I want to be hanging out. You know, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 10 years old. And you don't realize how you are absorbing through observation.
the work of giants, legends, legendary leaders in New Orleans, legendary community leaders and ministers and labor leaders and politicians that I just got an opportunity to observe as a very, very young person. And I know now what I didn't know then and that it was being poured into my being.
That's amazing. That's amazing, Mark. And, you know, one of the things that I pride myself in is having a, because that thing that's deeper than your why, right? Like, like people probably understand my kids are my wife. My wife is my wife, but there is a reason that they're my why. And I call that your because. So if I were to ask you, Mark, man, like what's your, because what's your purpose?
Why do you keep doing what you do?
I think it's about economic justice. Uh, it's, it's about, uh, equality of opportunity. It is about people having a life of dignity, prosperity, and the ability to use their God-given talent. That is what motivates me. That's been my life's work.
Whether government has been a vehicle to accomplish it, whether civil rights has been a vehicle to accomplish it, whether my private law practice, where I represented a wide range of people and institutions, is a vehicle to accomplish it. That's what really really energizes and animates me.
And I've got a special affinity for the youth, a special affinity for young people, because my career politically particularly was I was always the youngest guy in the room. I had an early start. I got elected when I was young. I was the youngest. Cleo Fields and I served in the state Senate together back in the 90s, early, mid-90s. And he and I were the youngest guys in the U.S. Senate.
I mean, rather than in the Louisiana State Senate. I got elected mayor at 35. I was the youngest guy in the caucus, the conference of mayors. So being a young guy in the room, sometimes with a chip on my shoulder, fighting for some respect, you know, was something that gives me this real, real idea that, you know, you got to nurture young people.
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Chapter 3: What strategies did Morial implement for youth programs?
You got to give them an opportunity. You got to let them be who they are.
Yes, sir. Yes, sir.
You know, one of the things that I admire about you, and this is how you touched me at a young age. I had just graduated college. You had just become the CEO of the Urban League, the National Urban League. And I saw you at a press conference one time, man. Like, I was visiting New Orleans, and you were having a press conference.
And I didn't know what a press conference was at 22 years old, right? Like, I watch, and I stop. And... And you stood to me at the intersection of politics, activism, and business. And you're one of the few people that really have done that. A lot of people don't understand. There are people that are career politicians. There are people that are career activists.
There are people that are career business leaders. You sit at the intersection of all three.
And it was at that moment that I said, there's a bigger purpose for me because I saw somebody that looked like me that was standing in a room talking so eloquently, but talking with purpose and talking with clarity and so much inspiration that a 23-year-old me stood there and said, there's something more I can do with my life.
That's touching, Mick, because sometimes you never know if people are watching you. You never know if people are listening. You never know if you're having an impact. I mean, you know, I was able to, you know, I was a young entrepreneur. First venture was 15 years old. It was a summer janitorial service at three friends. We got together. We cut grass. We cleaned cars. We cleaned windows.
We waxed floors and houses in the neighborhood I grew up in. And then later on, another friend of mine, we actually incorporated a company and we were party and special event planners, right? At 18, 19, 20, 21 years of age, we were event planners. You know, we would rent out clubs. We'd cut a deal with the owner. We wouldn't rent. We'd say, look, here's how this works. We'll take a slow night.
What's your slow night? Wednesday's my slow night. You take the bar. We're going to put a $5 charge on the door. That's what it costs in those days. And we're going to promote this all over town.
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Chapter 4: How has the National Urban League evolved under Morial's leadership?
And we're going to have a thousand people and we're going to keep the door and you keep the bar. And that was our business model. And we would put flyers and we'd go to every other club, every other party, college campuses and pass these flyers out. And it was a venture. And a third venture I had was gotten the cap and t-shirt business. Uh, and one, uh, two customers.
I had a, uh, the new Orleans world's fair was a customer and the new Orleans breakers, us football league team. They had a USFL team in new Orleans. They were a customer. Yeah. So I had these, uh, you know, entrepreneurial activities. And while I was doing this, I was in college or in law school. So I was doing this while I was doing something else. And, uh,
you know, truly business formation and entrepreneurship is part of civil rights. Because what it is, it's about building economic independence, income, and wealth. And, you know, our ancestors, forefathers, foremothers who lived from the end of slavery until the civil rights generation were incredible entrepreneurs and pioneers.
They built businesses, they built funeral homes, they built insurance companies, they built construction businesses. You know, I remember in New Orleans when I grew up, black people could not, they wouldn't sell houses to black people So what black people would do would, in the working class and middle class, black people would buy a lot and get a black contract and build a house.
They would build the type of house they couldn't buy. Right, right. Get a lot, built a house and they were black contractors, Mr. Barnes, Mr. Gayno. I mean, these guys were incredible, right? Because they were great builders and they built with high quality and they used all black artisans and craftspersons.
You know, they used black carpenters and black drywall folks and black bricklayers and black concrete people and black guy with the pile driving. You know, we had a true, you know, black economy. It was, you know, it was the economy where people were building independence, you know, and lived independently. We had that.
I saw a census from New Orleans in 1940 that there were 40 black grocery stores in New Orleans in 1940. There were like 10 black newspapers in 1940 because the white New Orleans, you couldn't shop in white New Orleans, generally. And so our folks, not only in New Orleans, but in Memphis and Birmingham and Montgomery and Atlanta and
You know, I'm sure in Greenville and Columbia and Charlotte and Raleigh and Durham, Durham being one of the capitals of black capitalism, I mean, built communities and built businesses and built sustainability. I mean, it was something to behold, you know, when we think about it. And then when civil rights came, we became much more mainstream.
It was about the job in government or the job in the private sector, the job of the company that we couldn't get, that our parents couldn't get. In a place like New Orleans before 1965, 66, 67, a black person could not even be a garbage man. Right? A black person could not drive a bus. A black person's only job in government was as a janitor.
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Chapter 5: What challenges does Morial see facing civil rights today?
Generations of people get over it, move past it, and the struggles and the battles that they waged.
Wholeheartedly. Wholeheartedly. And I'm going to talk about some of your accomplishments now because I know you're very humble, right? But I think sometimes you need to hear about the goodness of things that you did, man. Like when you were the mayor of New Orleans, lowest crime rate that they had ever had, right? You brought economic growth back to the city. You cleaned up the...
the perception of what New Orleans was on a national level. Like you did those things. And I don't think people understand the brevity of that because it's not like you can just go in there and snap your fingers in it.
Man, it was hard work.
Yes.
We created a bit of a movement and it was a movement to rebuild New New Orleans. Yes. And I felt like we had to create a movement atmosphere. You know, a movement atmosphere to get people active and involved. And we tackled the, you know, the violence problem is what compelled me to run for office. We were having, you know, we had 450 murders, something of that sort.
1993, 1994, we had a corrupt and ineffective police department. And I drove around driving past some playgrounds. broken bottles, broken basketball goals. I said, this is not going to sustain. This is not how it should be. And it really, in almost a fit of just passion, I said, I'm going to do something about all of this. And so I embraced a strategy to deal with violence that was multifaceted.
You know, in those days, people would get in these long debates. Oh, you know, We need more police. No, we need more social programs. We need more this. I said, you know, we're going to have more of all, right? But we're going to fix this police department, and ultimately we're going to need some more policemen. But we're going to have a different quality of officer.
We're going to have a different set of standards. We're not going to have this underperforming, lackadaisical system. And then I said, we're going to invest in youth. So that first summer I took office in May, put together 40 summer camps, put together 3,000 summer jobs for youth. And I told every agency in the government, you all are going to contribute to this summer jobs program.
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Chapter 6: What actions does Morial encourage for community involvement?
So I wanted to change the system in terms of how you did, how you got involved. You don't have to know somebody, right? You basically, you know, this is, and I divided up the slots by councilmanic districts. We had five, but it set the template for investing in youth. We invested in midnight basketball. We invested in starlight basketball, which was for girls.
We learned when we brought all the young people together that the recreation department did not have any programs for girls, nothing really. So we hired a women's athletic director and created a whole set of programming for girls. You know, we were just, you know, I was the kind of person kind of, you know, if we talked, I said, look, give me some ideas.
And if people came up with a good idea, I'm like, let's go do it. You know, we're not going to get caught up in a paralysis of study. We're going to try to do it. If it doesn't work, we'll chuck it, we'll put it on the side, and we'll go do something else. And so we had all of this, you know, youth program.
And it was contagious because as the city did it, then churches and faith-based organizations decided to create their own camps. Right. Their own youth programs. I mean, so we had this whole almost revolution in youth programming in New Orleans in those days. I also did something that, you know, it was dramatic. I put a curfew in place. And I'm a civil rights, civil libertarian person.
But I said, too many of these kids are getting killed at night. They're out. Look, we're going to help the parents. You had to be in. Now, if you're going to work, you're an exception. You're going to school activity. But New Orleans also has an attractive nightlife. A little bit. We got French Quarter. We got Frenchman Street. We got all kind of... So people like to be out.
But we had to deal with the fact that we had too many youth getting hurt and We did the curfew in a very different way. We did not take the young people we picked up off the street to jail. We brought them to a community center. We called it the curfew center. And we called their parents. Come pick up your son. Come pick up your daughter. No questions asked. Come pick them up.
And it had a dramatic impact. And so we were ideating and creating all these initiatives and these programs.
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Chapter 7: How does Morial define economic justice and equality of opportunity?
And they're trying to do things differently, right? So we had to clean up policing. We had to put police substations in public housing. We put police officers on bikes. We put them on foot. The chief I had, Richard Pennington, was an incredible chief. He said, I'm going to find some guys who grew up in the Desire Public Housing development, and I'm going to let them patrol there.
He says, you can't put guys, officers, men and women in these neighborhoods and they're all, none of them have lived in these neighborhoods. Yes, sir. You got to pick some folks and they're going to be known and they're going to be comfortable and they're going to understand the rhythm of the place. So they don't go in there like they're a bunch of outsiders. Police officers are not the military.
You know, they're there to protect and to serve, right? Yes, sir. Militaries had to protect and defend. It's a different mission. So it was tremendously successful. Also, it was very aggressive about Black business and minority business and women-owned businesses having an opportunity, doing business with the city and doing business on major projects.
And I had opposition from people in that regard. And I knew it was just people protecting their own economic turf. You know, I had to break that up to the extent that I could. We had a very successful run. I left office with the highest approval ratings of any mayor in modern New Orleans history. I won two elections, both by significant margins. And we just worked every single day.
I had open door policy at City Hall. As far as community groups and, you know, if somebody wants to come, you know, talk, raise an issue, I'm trying to hear you. Now, that doesn't mean I'm going to agree with you. So I was at, and I also was, I think I picked this up from my father, you know, being just a straight shooter with people.
You know, you come down and talk to me, you're going to get, you can get an answer. It might be a yes, might be a no, but you're going to get an answer. Right. That's it. I'm not going to play you and delay. Oh, man, I'm trying to think about it. I'm going to say, look, I don't think I can make that work. Or, you know what? Your idea is good, but it's half form. Come back with a better idea.
So we you know, we did a lot of, you know, an open door policy with the business community, many of whom did not support me initially. I had an open door policy and we we had a tremendous impact. relationship with ministerial and faith leadership in the city. We convened them on a quarterly basis. We held a luncheon for them on a quarterly basis to talk about the affairs of the city.
We had a great relationship with labor, right?
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Chapter 8: What future initiatives are planned for the Urban League?
Labor, again, you know, we had periodic, I believe in engaging with people on a periodic basis because, you know, I took the, I got to hear what they're saying. And I need to, I need to hear, I need to hear. And sometimes I need to hear it. Uninterpreted by staff and others. You know, I got to hear. I got to hear. And then say, OK, I hear you, but I'm not following. Help me follow.
So, you know, that's the kind of, you know, administration and leadership we had. And look, I had a tremendous number of great people around me. young people, lots of young people, some gray beards too, a record number of women in leadership positions. We had the first Asian Americans to serve in a cabinet. I had the first LGBTQ cabinet member in New Orleans history.
I mean, I had an inclusive administration. I called it the Gumbo Coalition. Yes, sir. And so that was... You know, that was a run. And being mayor of a major American city is a tough job. It is a demanding job. It is a painful job sometimes. But I loved every minute of it because I felt close to the people. And the people treat you like you're their big brother.
Older women treat me, I'm like their son. You know, they treat you like like you're their neighbor. Right. And that that relationship with the people is something I really, really treasure.
Absolutely. And you did it with dignity. You did it with grace and you did it from a point of inspiration. I'm always going to say the most inspiring person I know is you. And I mean, that's thank you. But you took that purpose. And I'm going to say you completed the mission. Right. But then there was a bigger mission. Right. The Urban League comes calling. Right.
So so talk to us about accepting accepting that call, accepting that purpose.
You know, when I got the call to basically asking me if I would interview. For the job, I was about six or eight months out of office. I begun practicing law at a great law firm. And the first thing I thought of was Whitney Young and Vernon Jordan. And I thought of they were role models of mine. I mean, Whitney Young, I followed his career to the pages of Jet magazine.
Vernon Jordan, I met when I was a teenager. Later on, met him again because his daughter went to college with me at the University of Pennsylvania. Mick, can you hear me? Is it going okay? Yeah, and so I thought, wow, this is a historic civil rights organization. This is a great opportunity. This is a national stage of advocacy.
I didn't know at the time, as I applied and got the job, that the organization needed a serious uplift. and a serious makeover. Generationally, it had become proud and aging. Very proud, but we had a lot of, you know, the organization to some extent was operating in, almost in the past tense, right?
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