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- Number one on the Black Enterprise list of the top hundred black firms is half the size of number one thousand on the Fortune List.
 
These are the basic facts. What of the future?

Minority business shares the goals of all minority groups—the search for their place in the sun, for their rightful share of a stake of in our economy.

To flourish, minority business must maintain a strong constituency in the communities from which it arises. At the same time, it must reach out for a bigger participation in the mainstream of American economic life.
It cannot afford to be isolated.

Just as critical, minority business must be backed up by a much stronger economic franchise. A long—and often shameful—history of last-hired and first-fired has made it difficult for minorities to enjoy economic power proportionate to their numbers or to accumulate capital to start their own businesses. Even in good times the unemployment rate for minority has run higher than for whites.

For minority youth the unemployment rate is disastrous—between 30 and 40 percent in the last decade. If you include young people who have given up hope of finding a job, as does the National Urban League in its "Hidden Unemployment Index", half of all black teenagers were jobless in 1978, about one and a half times higher than the official count.

All of us are profoundly concerned by the plight of minority youth. But, in the daily struggles to operate our businesses profitably and efficently—especially a small business where the burden of responsibility falls heavily on very few shoulders—the plight of minority youth may not appear to be a priority issue. Yet, it should be. The future of our country depends on the next generation of young Americans. The problems they face cut across all races and segments of society.
For young whites, the unemployment rate is a high 14%. For minority youth it is nearly two and a half times worse. 

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[[image 1]]
[[caption]] Jordan; Mahoney [[/caption]]

[[image 2]]
[[caption]] Corrin; Eklund [[/caption]]

[[image 3]]
[[caption]] Corrin; Lewis; Smith [[/caption]]

[[image 4]]
[[caption]] Martin; Mahoney; Jordan; Corrin [[/caption]]

[[box]]
1980 National Dinner
I.C.B.O.
New York Hilton Hotel
April 23, 1980
John Whitehead
Dinner Chairman
[[/box]]

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[[image 1 - photograph of two men]] [[image 2 - photograph of two men, one holding award]] [[image 3- photograph of three men, one holding award]] image 4- photograph of four men in conversation]]