After the Great Depression
Prior to the Civil Rights Movement, the NUL continued to advocate, counsel, and assist African Americans in the United States with social welfare. By the 1940s, the NUL was the social service agency that organized programs training young African Americans for employment. 1949 marked the first time a national corporation visited an HBCU, after the NUL convinced General Electric to put Howard University on its recruitment list. At the start of the 1950s, the NUL would generate campaigns around science education in response to the Soviet Sputnik satellite and employment for scientists and technicians.