Rev. Jesse Jackson calls himself a country preacher, but in the ranks of civil rights leaders and social activists, he's quite worldly.

The founder and president of the Rainbow/Push Coalition, headquartered in Chicago, visited New Orleans to launch his organization's first annual Wall Street Project New Orleans Economic Summit. The theme of the two-day event on November 26-27, 2000 at the Fairmont Hotel was "Building Bridges to Expand the Marketplace: An Economic Summit." It was co-sponsored by the Citizenship Education Fund, the City of New Orleans, Dryades Savings Bank, Entergy, Liberty Bank, State Farm Insurance, AME Janitorial, Quick Courier Services, Calhoun Enterprises and Pharos Capital, Inc.

The key objective of the summit was to brainstorm ways of increasing more minority business with major corporations in the Gulf South. Corporate representatives and numerous members of the local business, religious and civic community were on hand to participate in discussion roundtables on tourism and hospitality, energy, telecommunications and access to capital, especially for church-based investments. They heard Rev. Jackson urge minority businesses to focus more on gaining access to capital and seeking partnerships with major corporations for investment opportunities in minority businesses. He stated what makes New Orleans great is not only its international entertainment reputation, but more importantly, its shipping, oil and gas, energy and hospitality-related industries which more minorities must infiltrate as business partners, not purely consumers. "Investment leads to growth and everyone wins. Minority businesses don't have a talent deficit, but an opportunity deficit. There's nothing we can't do, if we get a chance," said Rev. Jackson. He added, "Let me put it another way. We didn't know how good baseball could be until Black folks were allowed to play such as Jackie Robinson and Hank Aaron. Now, we don't know how good business can be unless minority businesses get to play on a level playing field in the corporate sector for equal opportunities to compete and contribute."

"There're plenty of minority business people here with goods and services to offer who are networking with employers and decision-makers capable of expanding minority business opportunities with major companies," remarked James Hutchinson, a national board member of the Rainbow/Push Coalition and New Orleans resident. He continued, "Rev. Jackson has raised the consciousness of summit attendees to learn more about the assets of this community."

A fellow Summit Steering Committee member of Hutchinson's shared his enthusiasm. William Dickerson, president of Granite Management Group, Inc., owns health-care and food service companies in Baton Rouge, LA. He asserted, "We want corporate America to take a good look at minority-owned products and services. If they expand their vendor bases to more effectively include us, it could result in lower prices ultimately for them. Reciprocity is the end result and bottom line."

The Rainbow/Push Coalition is a multi-racial, multi-issue, international membership organization founded by Rev. Jackson to move the nation and world toward social, racial and economic justice. It operates in the best tradition of the Civil Rights Movement by using state-of-the-art telecommunication tools to pursue its mission. The Coalition's three-year-old Wall Street Project launched in New York promotes inclusion, opportunity and economic growth for minorities with corporate America by improving hiring and promotion practices, naming more minorities to corporate boards, awarding more business to minority companies and increasing the amount of business minority firms conduct with each other. The project seeks to "tear down the walls on Wall Street" by using research, education, negotiation, and reconciliation to end the multi-billion dollar trade deficit between corporations and minority consumers.

Robert G. Miller is the vice president of Editorial Administration for iMinorities, Inc. and editor of THE BLACK COLLEGIAN Magazine.