Jackson to Propose Plan for More Economic Power for Minorities

After a symbolic assault on Wall Street last year, America’s minorities return to the bastion of capitalist power this week armed with concrete proposals to help get the poor a bigger slice of the wealth.

Civil rights leader the Rev. Jesse Jackson cited a four-point plan that he will put to President Clinton and business leaders today and Friday at the second annual Wall Street Project.

“We intend to replace the wall around Wall Street with a bridge,” Jackson said. “There’s money behind that wall, there’s markets behind that wall, there’s talent behind that wall.”

Jackson, founder and president of the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, said the pillars of his campaign for more economic power for blacks, Latinos and other minorities are:

* Establish a credible base of research.

* Build bridges from corporate America to underutilized talent.

* Set up financial institutions to get capital to impoverished areas of the United States.

* Recruit political parties, organized labor and government to help push for an end to economic inequalities along racial lines.

“We must ‘greenline’ a redlined America in order that we might share in the country’s growth, wealth and prosperity,” Jackson said, referring to the practice by some financial institutions of refusing to give loans or invest in impoverished, mostly minority redlined areas.

During Friday’s keynote address, Clinton is expected to announce a program to promote access to money for small businesses and minority entrepreneurs.

Jackson said last year’s inaugural conference, though largely symbolic, had produced successes, including General Motors Corp.’s decision to review its minority dealership program.