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James Shelby
President and CEO of the
Greater Sacramento Urban League

James Shelby is the President and CEO of the Greater Sacramento Urban League. The League pursues a mission to enable African Americans, other minorities and the underserved to secure economic self-reliance, parity, power and civil rights.


Favorites

Web site:	www.gsul.org
Software:	Microsoft Outlook
Technogadget:	Palm Pilot - IPAQ
Movie:	The Godfather
Book:	Vernon Jordan’s “Vernon Can Read”
CD:	The New Testament Gospel Choir, “I Got Faith” directed by Bill Miller

What does the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. holiday mean to you?

I think the importance for me is remembering what I don’t want to go back to. I grew up in the rural south, and I didn’t have the opportunity to work in the downtown department stores. I think it is important that every African American or poor person in America recognize that Martin Luther King is a symbol of equality. It just frustrates me to see so many African Americans working in corporations, sometimes in senior level positions, who don’t even take the time to just say thank you for past sacrifices. People gave their lives for us to have the opportunities we have today, and I think it is just criminal for people not to take time out to say thank you. Things have changed, but things can go back. Just look at Trent Lott and that statement that he made. As many advancements as we’ve made, we still have a long way to go.

Has Dr. King’s philosophy been a benefit to the African American community?

Yes. I think that his philosophy was basically non-violent demonstration but, at the same time, challenging the system to be responsive. I do that every day at my job. When I see companies that are taking resources from our community (from an economic standpoint), that don’t want to give back, then Dr. King’s message comes alive. It is kind of like a washing machine, you know? My mother used to wash clothes with a Scrub-Boy, we lived in the country, and we got a washing machine. Just like that old washing machine, if you don’t agitate those clothes, they don’t get clean. I think we have to always put some pressure on the system, but at the same time, we have to work within it.

What are some points you will cover in your keynote speech at the Capitol?

One of the things I want to look at is: with all the gains we’ve made, we still have much to do. I will give you an example. Black firefighters who are now captains and chiefs and assistant chiefs used to go out into the community helping young African American kids prepare themselves to be firefighters. All that was required was a high school diploma or a community college degree. But now to be a firefighter you must have an EMT certificate, or you have to be a paramedic. Now, very few African Americans are going into the fire department. I think we’ve got to show people that if we look back 30 or 40 years, we are fighting some of the same struggles today that we were fighting back then.

Another point is this: political empowerment for African Americans. People use us for their vote, but when we come to ask them for resources for our community after the election, they don’t even want to deal with us. Neighborhoods in inner cities need services, but the resources typically go to communities that have the ability to speak out. So we show people that everybody who has something, has got to give back. And people don’t want a hand out, they want a hand up. When I think about every African American who has made it to the middle class and hasn’t given back in communities like Del Paso Heights and Oak Park and Meadowview, I think that all the things that King did was for naught. Churches in our communities can’t understand that the people in the ‘hood can’t read and are only going to be marginalized with low income jobs. The schools are taking money from the state to educate our children and they are doing a lousy job of it. In some ways, we all have an obligation to help these kids—to volunteer in schools, to mentor a kid in the neighborhood. Every kid in a gang is in a gang because they want to be loved. I like to be loved, you like to be loved. So in some ways, the work is not over. That is the message that I want to deliver. In some areas the work has just begun. We didn’t have gangs when I grew up. I grew up in the rural south, and kids dropped out of high school to go to work. They didn’t drop out of high school to hang out on the street. And so today, the mission that Martin started is still incomplete, and we need to make people understand that it is going to take African Americans to step up, because if they won’t do it, then who else is going to do it?

What contributions can individuals make to promote racial harmony, and civil rights?

Well one thing that you can do is start in your neighborhood. We just started having house parties in our neighborhood, and we began a discussion about race. Nobody wants to talk about racism, but we have this racial divide in America. People are pulling their kids out of the inner city schools and taking them to the suburbs, where the schools are segregated. Our African American boys are struggling in the suburbs. People still don’t like interracial dating. And so I think if we start promoting racial harmony in our homes, the kids will learn it. If we just begin talking to people about our jobs, talking to people that we meet in shopping centers, and not be afraid to begin a discussion – we all may have different opinions. Bill Clinton had the right idea about getting people to talk about race, and I think we need to start in our neighborhoods and confront the issues that really divide us.

How is the Sacramento Urban League keeping up to date with technology?

We are probably one of the most technological community-based organization in the country. When we built this building in Del Paso Heights, through a lot of partnerships, the one thing we had to have was technology. Hewlett Packard gave us 150 computers; Gateway gave us 20 computers; IBM gave us 10 computers, and Hewlett Packard gave us a server that will take care of our needs for the next 10 years. We also have an Intel clubhouse, where inner city kids (ages 8-18) come in after school to work in the computer lab. They can make a movie, interactive cartoons, and there is a music lab where kids can go in and make a CD. We teach computer-based call center training and advanced office technology.

What is your technology vision for the Sacramento Urban League?

That every young child that doesn’t have access to technology can get it here at the Urban League. That mothers who are transitioning from welfare to work, or people who are hard to serve that don’t have job skills—they can get an opportunity to reconnect and gain economic self-sufficiency here. Because we know that if you can’t read, write, and compute, if you don’t have computer skills and critical thinking skills, you’re not going to make it today in even a basic entry-level job. Everything is computer-based.

How do you unwind and relax?

I play golf. When everything else doesn’t work for me, I go home and I pray. Golf is my hobby—my family is my salvation. If nothing else, I want to be known for my kids being on the economic path to self-sufficiency.

What is your personal philosophy?

One is treat people the way you want to be treated. Another is to give a helping hand to someone along the way, because you never know what you might get.