(3) Wall Street, Racial Investments, Jesse Jackson
Racial profiling on Wall Street and in Investments.

(3) Wall Street, Racial Investments, Jesse Jackson
News Stories and Background

Wall Street:  Jackson's Extortion Brings Business to Minority- and Women-Owned Firms (05/01/99 - dead)
          "After discussions with the Rev. Jesse Jackson, a minority-owned securities firm and one owned by a woman are getting larger and more lucrative roles in underwriting Goldman, Sachs' initial public offering of stock. Utendahl Capital Partners, considered the largest black-owned investment bank in the nation, and Muriel Siebert & Co. were moved up into the "major bracket" of underwriters, a grouping just below the top tiers of firms involved in the offering, a person close to the situation said Friday on condition of anonymity. ... Neither Goldman nor the Wall Street Project would comment Friday, except to say that they had been engaged in what a Goldman spokesman called "a constructive dialogue regarding these issues." Siebert acknowledged that no minority- or woman-owned firm could handle the co-manager's position because of the millions of dollars in capital the underwriter would have to bring to the table. Essentially, an underwriter buys the stock then sells it to the public, garnering lucrative fees along the way."  (Associated Press by Peter Alan Harper, via ABC News 05/01/99)
[former link *http://www.abcnews.go.com/sections/business/DailyNews/goldman990501.html]

Wall Street:  Clinton Urges Racial Investment Quotas on Wall Street (01/15/99 - dead link)
          "President Clinton is challenging Wall Street to invest in the 'underserved' markets of America and ensure that the nation's downtowns share the good economic times with impoverished inner-city and rural communities." 

          "Highlighting a section of his fiscal 2000 budget proposal, Clinton planned today to unveil a bundle of tax incentive and loan guarantees designed to attract venture capital to distressed areas from the barrios of Los Angeles to the hamlets of Appalachia.

          " 'The president is going to challenge the leaders of Wall Street to take the lead in investing in America's new markets,'  said an administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity."

          Clinton planned to travel to New York City to unveil his new racial financial quota initiative at an economic conference organized by Jesse Jackson's Wall Street Project, a racial coalition dedicated to securing racial quotas and minority guarantees from Wall Street investors. Jackson has been remarkably successful in using threats of minority boycotts and bad publicity to induce Wall Street to fork over the dough.  (Associated Press, via Fox News, 01/15/99, by Kevin Galvin)
[former link **http://www.foxnews.com/js_index.sml?content=/news/wires2/0115/n_ap_0115_32.sml]

Wall Street:  Jesse Jackson Demands Minority Money from Wall Street (01/16/99) (dead link)
          "Jesse Jackson came to Wall Street two years ago preaching the gospel of economic inclusion and racial diversity. But rather than appealing to the nation's money men on moral grounds, Jackson is instead invoking their Holy Grail: the bottom line.

          "As Jackson sees it, it's good business for Corporate America to invest in the nation's underserved inner cities and rural communities; to include more women and minorities on their boards; and to cut deals with minority and female-owned advertising, law, money-management and other firms.

          "It was a theme also sounded by President Clinton, who today addressed the annual conference of Jackson's Wall Street Project, calling on business leaders to take the lead in investing in the nation's "new markets" -- the poor communities that have been largely bypassed by the nation's record economic expansion."  (Washington Post, 01/16/99, page E01, by Michael A. Fletcher)
[former link *http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-01/16/051l-011699-idx.html]

Wall Street:  Jackson Moves to Wall Street (03/11/97)
          "In an effort to [promote racial quotas] in Corporate America, Jesse Jackson's Rainbow/PUSH organization opened an office this week on Wall Street to pressure companies into diversifying their workplaces.   The opening comes after Jackson and other [quota supporters] successfully pressured Mitsubishi Motors of America and Texaco in separate discrimination cases.

          "Appearing Tuesday on [CNN’s] Moneyline with Lou Dobbs, Jackson said his organization wanted a Wall Street presence so that it could wake companies up to the [threat of racial boycotts unless they agree to work] with minority employees and businesses.  'The walls on Wall Street must come down,'  Jackson said. 'The corporate lockout must end. The one-way trade must end. It's a matter of urgency for us [blacks].'  Jackson said his group's Wall Street office, located in space donated by Donald Trump, aims to lobby big companies for change.  'We're simply saying to Wall Street corporations ... we expect you to open up the market place [regardless of risks]', Jackson said.  'We (African-Americans) have good products, services, talent and capital. Let us in.'  (CNN Financial News, 03/11/97)
[link http://www.cnnfn.com/fnonair/interview/9703/11/intv_jackson/index.htm ]

Wall Street:  Efforts to Increase 'Diversity' Among Regional Securities Firms (02/22/99)
          "Oswald James was a bright West Indian kid trying to rise above the hard-scrabble life of a black immigrant in Brooklyn in the 1960s. His guidance counselor offered this piece of life-saving advice: Work for a factory in Queens.  But James chose to follow an uncharted path on Wall Street, made available to him by a community outreach center.

          "[Oswald James] joined Equitable Cos. in 1967 as a clerk in the actuarial room. Like a job on a factory floor, the work week was long, the pay was low and there was little hope for promotion -- until he earned a degree in accounting nine years later.  James wound up spending 26 years at Equitable, rising to vice president for the controller's office.  After a stint at CIBC Oppenheimer, he joined The Edgar Lomax Co., [a black-owed] asset-management firm in Springfield, last year as vice president for business development.

          "Like that community center many years ago, James, 50, is trying to lure young minorities into the financial services industry.  James was a panelist at a Feb. 6 symposium, held at the Columbus School of Law at Catholic University, to address diversity in the securities industry. The conference comes at a time when the industry is evaluating the need for more minorities and women in its ranks."  (Washington Business Journal, 02/22/99)
[link http://www.amcity.com/washington/stories/1999/02/22/story3.html ]

END (3) Wall Street, Investments, Jesse Jackson