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By Anslem Samuel | Published March 29, 2011 | Full size is 382 × 480 pixels

On launching the BE 100s "As the magazine grew, we became an important gauge of black business activity for this nation. In 1973, we started our ranking of the top 100 black-owned businesses. Up to that point, business publications such as The Wall Street Journal, BusinessWeek and Fortune all but ignored the challenges and triumphs of black entrepreneurs. I developed what came to be known as the BE 100 – and due to the rapid growth of black business 16 years after that list’s inception, the BE 100s – because I thought there was a need to have the world know where African American business was and where it would go. We needed to track that growth over a period of years so that someone 50 years from now could write about what we have done."

On launching the BE 100s “As the magazine grew, we became an important…