Oakland's Black business community's confrontations with its Mayor, Jerry Brown, over the lack of business opportunities on Martin Luther King's birthday is paralleled on the other side of the Bay at a meeting of over 1,000 predominantly Black business persons and residents of Bayview-Hunters Point. The angry crowd was telling the San Francisco MUNI what must be done for the $600 million 3rd Street Light Rail project in their community to proceed. The Bayview Hunters Point community's demand for jobs, contracts and compensation for merchants during construction, has blocked MUNI from starting construction on the first phase of the $125 million maintenance facility. "African Americans have been discriminated against and locked out of the construction industry in San Francisco while our City enjoyed a multi-billion dollar construction boom," states Willie Ratcliff, President of the African American Contractor's Association of San Francisco. "In whatever way necessary, we will keep making our demands until they're met," he continued.

The disenfranchisement of Black businesses continues on a national basis according to the latest U.S. Census Bureau reports. Although the U.S. Black population of 34. 7 million is more than three times that of the Asian and Pacific Islander population of 10.6 million, there were only 823,499 Black businesses as compared to 912,960 for Asians. The average gross revenue of Black-owned business was $86,478, less than 1/2 of all minority-owned firms at $194,555. Even more revealing, only 11.3% of Black companies have paid employees

However, progress for Black America continues to be made on the corporate scene. Joining Stan O'Neal as he assumes the position of President and CEO of Merrill Lynch, the world's largest stockbroker, will be Richard Parsons, the new Chief Executive Officer of AOL Time Warner, the world's largest media company. Black billionaire businessman Robert Johnson, founder of Black Entertainment Television (BET) is number 172 among the Forbes 400 richest people in America. Oprah Winfrey, listed at number 280 on the Forbes list, is close to being America's second Black billionaire with current assets of $900 million.

Congratulations are in order for Black Los Angeles area Assemblyman Herb Wesson's election to Willie Brown's old job, Speaker of the California Assembly. In the meantime, Willie Brown, Mayor of San Francisco, raised over $1 million for his run for the California Senate at a dinner at the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco. "Don't get me wrong. I am not just running for the State Senate. I am running for the President of the Senate," states the colorful Black Mayor.

"Power concedes nothing without a demand…" Frederick Douglas