Rev. Jesse Jackson holds eighth annual Wall Street project in New York City

Rev. Jesse Jackson, Sr., founder and president of the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, challenged leaders on Wall Street to step up their diversity efforts during the recent 8th annual Rainbow/PUSH Wall Street Project in New York City.

At the conference, whose theme was "Beyond Diversity, Equity and Parity: A New Covenant," Jackson noted that Black Americans and people of color are still not getting their fair share of pension funds management, university endowments and seats on corporate boards.

Jackson said, "It is our intent through our Wall Street Conference to challenge Fortune 1000 companies to bridge the trading and opportunity gap between corporations and minority business owners through inclusion. By increasing diversity on Wall Street, we create a ripple effect that will increase business growth and job creation and engage members of our own community in philanthropy. Our success is everyone's victory." He also told the conference participants at the New York Hilton Hotel: "Toward a more perfect union, American business must embrace inclusion as a means of growth--the manifestation of two-way trade between business owners locked out of opportunity and corporations seeking to expand market share."

During the conference, Jackson revealed the contents of a 17-page report that highlighted the state of Blacks on Wall Street.

While there has been some progress on Wall Street since the launch of the Wall Street Project in 1997, the report noted that the struggle for full economic inclusion in America is still far from a reality. Black firms manage only $8.7 billion of almost $3.5 trillion in mutual fund assets. This amounts to slightly more than 3 percent. The report also noted that people of color are disproportionately victimized by illegal practices such as predatory lending, insurance redlining, automotive markups and defrauding of pension funds.

Rev. Jackson commended New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer for his efforts to rid Wall Street of fraud and corruption during a one-on-one dialogue at the Economic Planning Breakfast, which kicked off the conference.

During a luncheon at the conference, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) credited Jackson's Wall Street Project for giving her husband, former President Bill Clinton, the vision to launch the New Markets Initiative, which encourages investment in underserved communities.

"A lot of progress has been made," Sen. Clinton said. "But for many, the dream is still unfulfilled. We need to encourage more companies to look to reinvest in urban and deteriorating suburban areas."

Rev. Jackson referred to economic inclusion as the "fourth stage of the Civil Rights Movement" and emphasized the need to make capital accessible to all

Americans during a press conference attended by elected officials, civil rights and business leaders, including Florida Congresswoman Corrine Brown, Philadelphia Mayor John Street, and Manhattan Borough President C. Virginia Fields.

The Wall Street Project is an initiative of Rev. Jackson's Citizenship Education Fund (CEF) and was inspired by the Southern Christian Leadership Conference's Operation Breadbasket, introduced by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1966 to combine theology and economic justice for a more inclusive America.

--Photos Tyrone Rasheed and Karl Crutchfield