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Local Urban League honors legislator, consulting firm

program.

By Felix Hoover

For YourNewsColumbus.com

Much as Ohio State fans grew accustomed to watching Archie Griffin rack up 100-yard rushing games during his Heisman Trophy seasons, they eagerly anticipate his advocacy of the 3 Ds – Desire, Determination and Dedication.

His motivational talk on Monday at the Columbus Urban League’s Annual Equal Opportunity Day Awards Luncheon smoothly blended in the three attributes, applying them to some of his sports and societal idols. He also added a fourth, dignity, in describing the manner in which Bill Willis, OSU’s first black All-American football player lived a life of service.

Willis, who died last November, was director of the Ohio Youth Commission after his playing days.

Griffin, the popular president and chief executive officer of the OSU Alumni Association, spoke to the luncheon crowd of about 750, which included students from his Alma Mater, Eastmoor Academy, and several other high schools. Marion-Franklin High School, from which Columbus Urban League President and CEO Eddie Harrell Jr. graduated, was among them.

 State. Rep. Joyce Beatty, who received the Honda Award of Excellence, praised Harrell, the students and the Urban League. The Corporate Leadership Award went to Sophisticated Systems Inc., led by President and CEO Dwight Smith.

Beatty echoed words espoused by Tom Hoaglin, chairman and CEO of Huntington Bankshares Inc. and honorary chairman of the luncheon, “Different, Alike, Together.”

“My experience and the rewards that have come to me have come in part through the Urban League,” said Beatty, the first African-American female Democratic Leader in the Ohio House of Representatives.

Her first job after graduation from college was in a program at the Urban League in Dayton under then-Executive Director Ed Crutcher.

“For the first six month the Urban League paid for you to be on a job, and then if you did extremely well you were placed in a full-time professional job,” Beatty said.

She later served as a consultant to former National Urban League President Hugh B. Price.

Beatty gave this assessment of the luncheon, “Having black and white people together, raising well over a quarter of a million dollars to put forward for education, housing and our children, it builds hope.”

The amount was $300,000, the highest total in the 33-year history of the luncheon, said Christopher Washington, chairman of the Urban League board. Honda of America Mfg. was the presenting sponsor.