Wall Street Project Summit: Rev. Jesse Jackson Celebrates MLK Legacy on Final Day

Rev. Jesse L. Jackson celebrated Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Jan. 15 birthday, by bringing power, politics, and faith to the final day of this week’s 18^th annual Wall Street Project Economic Summit.

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Beginning Thursday morning with some of the most powerful blacks in America, the panel, “The Role of Corporate Boards when Driving Diversity,” featured the few who have the non-diversified privilege of sitting on a corporate board of directors. “30% of the largest 250 companies still don’t have one single African American board director,” said Black Enterprise’s President and CEO Earl “Butch” Graves, Jr., who moderated. “The worst offender is Silicon Valley.”

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Panelists included former Secretary of Transpiration, Rodney E. Slater, who is now a partner at Squire Patton Boggs; W. Rogers Jr., Chairman, CEO, and Chief Investment Officer of Ariel Investments, LLC; and Bruce S. Gordan, former President and CEO of the NAACP known as the “Godfather” of black corporate board directors. “People who aspire to be to be on corporate boards say, ‘How do I get paid to be on these boards?’ If your mission is to get paid your head is in the wrong place,” said Gordan. “Board members ask questions over and over. It’s not hard to get the right conversation going in the room if you ask the right questions and follow through calling the CEO a week or month later. It’s a constant beat on the issues.”

Graves, who asked an ongoing collage of great, thought-provoking questions, talked about the watered down effect of defining diversity. “The word ‘diversity’ has gotten to be a dirty word,” he said. “Because now as you broaden the word, it is a diversion away from African American.”

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“People get shy in the boardroom, comfortable, and want to make all the white guys comfortable,” said Rogers. “I always felt a responsibility to ask about their diversity and their board of directors.”

Check out more corporate board diversity, doing business in Africa and other panel insights on the next page …

Gordan helped wrap the engaging talk by driving the panel’s point home. “It’s about courage and conviction. The other thing you got to do is stick to your values and principles,” he said. “And you got to be willing to walk away from the opportunity. You got to promote equal rights.”

The follow-up to the corporate board diversity panel brought Africa to forefront. Gathering key representatives from countries like South Africa, Guinea and Cameroon, the “Africa Economic Expansion Forum” worked as a presentation to drive up greater interest from African American entrepreneurs. “We love doing business with African Americans, but we don’t see them on the ground. We tend to wonder if we’ve done something,” said Dr. Patrice Ngue, of Cameroon’s Geiser Consulting. “African Americans need to come to Africa. You can make money in Africa. We lack technology. If you bring the technology to Cameroon or Africa, definitely, you’re going to make large money.”

RELATED: Doing Business in Africa

Ngue’s passionate display of needing and wanting to work with America’s black entrepreneurs came coupled with social relevance. “When I see the kind of issues you have here, you want to invest in Silicon Valley. Your Silicon Valley is in Africa,” he said. “Come here.”

Down the hallway of the Sheraton New York Times Square Hotel, a panel of nearly 10 faith leaders, financial specialists, and community advocates discussed ways to use the church

and gain the financing needed to help grow their black neighborhood.  Newark, NJ Mayor Ras Baraka spoke about the power of churches needed to place pressure on local politicians. “It’s up to the political leadership of the city to direct what the financial institutions are doing for the city,” he said, offering a hand of partnership to faith leaders in Newark.  “Churches can hold community leaders accountable for not working with institutions to invest in the community.”

After other panels on energy, investment officers, and succeeding on the Web with Google ended, the conference commenced with the Wall Street Project Awards Luncheon. Featuring speakers like Congresswoman Maxine Waters; and Dr. Jim Yong Kim, President of the World Bank Group; the summit ended on a note of power by honoring Dr. Lonnie G. Johnson, President and CEO of Excellatron; and Rev. Dr. Calvin O. Butts, III of New York’s famed Abyssinian Baptist Church.