The drive for economic equality: the new civil rights movement

Ebony, August, 1989 by Alex Poinsett

THE DRIVE FOR ECONOMIC EQUALITY

THE NEW CIVIL RIGHTS

MOVEMENT

ATLANTA MAYOR Andrew Young's words are at the heart of a new civil rights thrust toward economic equality. He and other observers note that economic gains for Blacks have not matched the civil rights movement's successes in other arenas since 1964. Nor have these successes eliminated a wealth gap between the nation's Blacks and Whites, which economist David Swinton estimates to be a staggering $600 billion-plus. Moreover, Black/White job parity would mean an additional two million executive, professional, sales and other high-pay, high-status jobs for Blacks.

Addressing these economic challenges, U.S. Rep. William H. Gray III, (D-Pa.), Democratic Caucus chairman and former House Budget Committee chairman, argued recently that the central question facing the nation today is no longer simply Black versus White, even though massive racism still suffocates America like foul air. The question, Rep. Gray said, is one of economic equality. As he put it: "It's not whether Blacks can get into Harvard, for example, but whether they can pay the tuition. Not whether Blacks can check into the Hilton or the Hyatt, but whether they can check out. Not whether Blacks can drive the bus, but whether they can own the bus company."

"If you think about Blacks being more represented in those industries--real estate development, financial services, insurance, etc. -- that have been sources of wealth for other groups, Blacks are still a long way away," adds economist Marcus Alexis.

For some Blacks, "integrating the money" has meant calls for "reparations" to compensate for 240 years of free slave labor. But for economist Andrew Brimmer, the phrase means "more Blacks in corporate board rooms, commodity and stock exchanges, helping to make economic decisions that affect the Black community and determine the economy's overall shape and rate of growth."

Dr. Brimmer also urges Blacks to accumulate capital through more ownership of businesses, stocks, bonds and other financial instruments. And he would have the federal government invest more in its citizens to enable them to compete equally.

Since 1966, the Rev. Jesse Jackson has emphasized parity by persuading American corporations to sign "covenants" with Operation PUSH and its predecessor, Operation Breadbasket. Generally, the agreements, currently with 12 firms and worth about $6 billion over five years, promise Blacks jobs at every corporate level, service contracts with Black firms, and a Black presence on corporate boards.

Lately, Rev. Jackson also has urged creative investments of worker pension funds to rebuild America. "How did Europe and Japan come back?" he asks. "We had not only a 25-year Marshall Plan but 50-year loans. We engaged in massive perestroika, to use Gorbachev's term. We restructured the entire economic opportunity base of Great Britain, France, West German and Japan, and today they're creditor nations while we're a debtor nation. The economically disadvantaged in America require no less than that kind of massive commitment to longterm development."

Like Operation PUSH, the NAACP has persuaded 60 companies to sign agreements to hire and promote Blacks, purchase goods and services from Blacks and set aside part of their annual budgets for Black charities. In December, General Motors signed the largest such agreement, committing more than $1 billion in economic benefits to the Black community.

"One of the worst things that happened in the Black community," recalls NAACP Executive Director Benjamin Hooks, "was talk that we didn't want to make Black millionaires. The concept of Black entrepreneurship is not simply making Black millionaires, but providing jobs and opportunities for people. But what is wrong with having some Black millionaires? Every race has to have a critical mass of people who are doing well and who can support its progressive institutions."

One such institution is the Joint Center for Political Studies, which has been pressing for a macroeconomic policy to increase the nation's average rate of economic growth and spur Black employment and income to reduce the number of Blacks -- now at nearly nine million--living in poverty. Meanwhile, Rep. Gray has characterized Congress' "battle of the budget" as ultimately the question of economic equality in America. "Will we have a two-tiered society of haves and havenots?" he asks. "Or will we have a society of greater opportunity and expansion, a society that allows millions of the economically disadvantaged to triumph and thus enrich America?"