Organizers said the purpose of the event was to develop position papers to be published in the coming months to “refocus and rejuvenate the movement for Black economic empowerment.” No resolutions were presented for vote by the convention.

We’re here to “write an economic agenda for the liberation of Black people,” said Ron Walters, author and University of Maryland professor, at the opening session.

In his keynote address, Democratic Party politician Jesse Jackson said political gains have been made since the 1972 convention. He pointed to the increased number of Black elected officials from about 900 in 1972 to slightly more than 9,000 last year.

“We’re in the next stage of the struggle,” Jackson said. “First there was the fight to end slavery. The second stage was to end Jim Crow. The third was the right to vote. The fourth is to gain access to capital.”

“Political power without economic power is almost no power,” said meeting co-chair Richard Hatcher, the former Gary mayor who was a co-chair of the 1972 convention. “We want to develop strategies to change that mind-set, to begin to save and accumulate wealth.” Hatcher suggested a Black stock exchange to promote investment in Black-owned companies.

New York Democrat Alfred Sharpton, Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, and Harry Belafonte were among the keynote speakers who echoed views similar to those of Jackson and Hatcher.

Jackson called for an April 1 demonstration in New Orleans in defense of the Voting Rights Act. He said the federal government has not provided a mechanism for the dispersed residents of New Orleans to vote in the April 22 municipal elections.

“This is a violation of the Voting Rights Act and disenfranchises Blacks,” Jackson stated. He contrasted this situation to the way the government arranged for Iraqis, dispersed worldwide, to vote in the recent elections in Iraq.  
 
 
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