African-Americans: the new powerful elite.

Black History Month is a time of renewal for the African-American community in the US. This month's celebrations are an opportunity to take pride in business, cultural, and political achievements. Milan Vesely provides this comprehensive review.

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Eschewing the radicalism of the 1960's for increased influence in mainstream America, the black community in the US is no longer an outsider looking-in but more like an insider, working from within, to change the still lingering racial prejudices of the past. With black businessmen and women now heading top 100 corporations, black politicians framing administration policies, and younger entrepreneurs setting the standard for both the black and white generations, the African-American community is at last taking its rightful place in US society.

Still among the majority to be suffering poverty in the US, African-Americans are nevertheless using their considerable talents to shape American society, an achievement that is increasingly becoming more obvious. Such a change can only be good for US society as a whole and is a proud achievement well worth celebrating.

NATIONAL POLITICS

For the first time in US history, two African-Americans have been vying for election in the 2004 Presidential elections. The Reverend Al Sharpton of New York and Congresswomen Carol Moseley Braun of Chicago, Illinois have both acquitted themselves well in the run-up to the Democratic Party's nomination, each reminding the leading candidates that the African-American community wields considerable political power, possibly even controlling the margin between victory or defeat. While neither won their party's nomination, these two colourful politicians have highlighted the black community's increasing participation in national politics, their wry sense of humour livening up the otherwise dull TV debates. Focused on the black community, their campaign fund-raising efforts also highlighted the growing number of black-run and black-owned corporations that are now considered among the major players of the US economy.

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On the Republican Party side, Secretary of State Colin Powell and National Security Advisor Condaleeza Rice are prominent Bush administration cabinet members, both expected to retain their positions should President Bush win a second term in November 2004. For the first time, black Americans have direct influence in the White House, their views regarded important enough to shape America's national and international policies.

Investment Field

* Top African-American banks have assets of $4.3bn.

* African-American insurance companies hold $559.4bn in assets.

* Top African-American investment banks control and manage $664.4bn in issues.

* African-American capital management companies boast private equity funds totalling some $2.5bn.

No business activity is as fast-paced, nerve-wracking or challenging as the trading of stocks on Wall Street. To be a major player on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) or on the more technology driven NASDEQ requires acumen, agility and ready access to vast amounts of investment capital.

In 2003, trading activities on both boards were especially difficult--a lukewarm US and world economy making the opportunity to exercise profit-taking a rare occurrence. Despite this, African-American professionals excelled in the investment field with Merrill Lynch's E. Stanley O'Neal, Citigroup's Thomas Jones and American Express Co's Kenneth I Chenault all appointed, or continuing in positions as chief executive officers (CEOs) of their respective firms.

Standing out from the crowd, Vernon E Jordan Jr., senior managing partner of investment banking powerhouse Lazard Freres, is also best known for his advisory role to former President Bill Clinton in the impeachment proceedings over the Monica Lewinski affair. Others who excelled in a difficult and challenging year are:

Ronald E Blaylock, 42, Chairman and CEO of Blaylock and Partners L.P. Executing investment-banking services for companies in the telecommunications, energy and financial services, Blaylock's firm participated in the largest American IPO (Initial Public Offering): the $10.6bn AT & T Wireless Group public offering. A powerful and influential figure on Wall Street, Blaylock recently appointed former Clinton energy secretary Hazel O'Leary as CEO of his company.

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Napoleon Brandford III, 50, co-founder and chairman of Siebert Brandford Shank & Co., L.L.C., a top rated minority and women-owned municipal bond underwriting firm with $38bn in senior and co-managed issues. Brandford helps structure underwriting deals for Washington State's City of Seattle, the State of Texas and California's LA County. The firm was ranked 16th nationally, with $2.5bn of public financing deals in 2002.

Eddie C Brown, 61, founder and president of Brown Capital Management. With $5.6bn under management, Brown heads the management team of his company and also serves as the company's portfolio manager and senior analyst. A regular guest on financial TV shows, Brown is an analyst on the highly rated Wall Street Week TV program and a sought-after expert on picking companies and industries with attractive growth prospects.

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Entertainment

African-Americans are the stars of the entertainment industry, with both music and TV mediums proving fertile ground for their many talents.

Bringing new cultural experiences such as hip-hop, rap and soul to the public at large, many of the entertainment industry's stars are also becoming moguls in the clothing industry. As such they have become a powerful force in US culture, while also having a profound influence on how the younger generations of Americans dress.

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According to the entertainment index published by Nielson Entertainment Ratings of White Plains, New York, African-Americans spent $906.8m on pre-recorded music and $368.9m on cinema tickets in the first six months of 2002. They also watched 14 hours and 29 minutes of television each week, more then any other group in the nation.

According to Jeff Friday, executive director of the African-American Film Festival "In Hollywood, power comes in two forms; executive power in which those at the studio can green-light a film, an area where blacks are not represented, and artistic power in which actors like Denzel Washington, Ice Cube, Bill Cosby and Wesley Snipes can get their films made because of their branding power and box office draw. It is in the former that African-Americans have to do more."

Pointing out that there is only one black CEO heading an entertainment network--billionaire Robert Johnson of Viacom's Black Entertainment television (BET)--Friday laments that there are also only a handful of black agents who negotiate significant deals at major talent agencies such as International Creative Management (ICM).

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"This is changing, but not fast enough," he says, admitting that the younger rap artists are the ones leading the way by signing black agents to represent their varied interests.

Despite this lack of widespread representation, many Black entertainment entrepreneurs have branched out into other fields, launching their own record labels, production companies or artist management businesses. Collectively, these new businessmen wield considerable clout, as proved by Richard D Parsons, CEO of Time Warner, the media giant that owns Warner Brothers, New Line Studios, Elecktra Records, TNT and TBS networks, as well as the highly profitable Six Flags amusement parks. Other noteworthy African-Americans working in the entertainment industry are:

Sean "P Diddy" Combs, 33, chairman and CEO of Bad Boy Entertainment; a $300m empire that includes Bad Boy Records, Combs Music Publishing--a joint-venture with EMI Records--and Janice Combs Management, a company managing music producers. With his own line of clothing (Sean John Clothing), the Justin chain of restaurants, and the state-of-the-art Daddy's House recording studio, Sean "P Diddy" Combs is considered one of the many up and coming black power brokers in the US entertainment industry. He already wields considerable influence, the major TV studios considering him a star spokesman for the younger generation, both black and white.

Stephanie Allain, 43, president of production at the Jim Hanson Pictures is in her own right considered a major figure in US entertainment. In charge of The Muppets, a multi-billion dollar children's music and movie franchise, she is tasked with developing and producing up to 15 films over the next five years. In 1999 she got her big break when serving as executive director of the $127m grossing hit Muppets from Space, an incredible take for a cartoon movie.

Damon Dash and Shawn "Jay Z" Carter, partners of Roc-a-Fella Enterprises, are also well known for being the masterminds behind Roc-a-Fella records, a 50/50 joint venture with Universal Studio's Def Jam records. With some $100m in 2002 revenues they produced the 1999 rap music Roc-a-Fella Hard Knock Life 54-city tour that took in a record $18m of box office receipts, one of the highest grossing national tours in rap music history.

Sports

The sports industry is an area in which black Americans have excelled for some time. Who can forget gasping at the $50m promotion fee golfer Tiger Woods was signed to by American Express, or the equally astronomical amount of money now being earned by the tennis playing Williams sisters?

Sports shoe manufacturers are particularly prone to signing black athletes, their gear sales rising exponentially with every new athlete they sign to an endorsement contract. And it is in American sports that African athletes have found their biggest earning potential.

"One must not forget the fortunes being earned by Sudan's basketball playing star Dikembe Matumbo or ex-Nigerian, Houston Rockets mega-star Hakim Olujowan," as one top sports agent pointed out. "Today we have agents scouring Africa for soccer players, runners and even swimmers who can make an impact on the world's sport scene. Just look what an impact the black Jamaican bobsledders had on the staid European sport of winter games."

Others, like ex-Los Angeles basketball star 'Magic' Johnson, have gone on to become prominent businessmen. Johnson's chain of movie theatres ranks among the highest grossing theatre in the US. Through his ownership of sports franchises, Johnson also joins the ranks of the wealthiest African-Americans--with TV presenter, national diva and magazine owner Oprah Winfrey leading the way.

Medicine

"As goes a nation's health, so goes its well being," is a well known saying in the field of medicine, and black physicians are playing their role in the health of the US. Many are worthy of mention, but two stand out, one for the reason of having come from Africa, the other for the reason of being recognised as the top expert in his field.

Dr Elizabeth O Ofili, 45, is professor of medicine, chief of cardiology and director of clinical research at Morehouse School of Medicine. As a young girl growing up in Ebu, Nigeria, Ofili never dreamt that she could become president of the American Association of Black Cardiologists, or a renowned expert in the field of echocardiography.

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Helping to create and validate an innovative means of analysing the intracoronary Doppler spectral wave form observed in patients with coronary artery disease, she has gained world-wide recognition as the leading expert in this very specialised field.

"I would not be where I am without the support of my parents, Felicia and Gregory Ofili, who encouraged me and taught me that I could be anything that I wanted to be," the nonconforming Ofili says. "Cardiology is one of those specialties in medicine where things happen fast. When there is an emergency you have to think fast in order to make a difference in someone's life. I think that this is what attracted me to this field."

And making a difference is what Ofili has done, with over 100 scientific papers, book chapters and abstracts published in the public domain.

Dr. Benjamin Solomon Carson, Sr., 45, is director of paediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Medical Institution. In Germany in 1996, and again in South Africa in 1997, Ben Carson gained international fame when he separated a pair of Siamese twins who were co-joined at the head. In late 2003, some 300 neuro-operations later, he was chief surgeon in the separation of a pair of co-joined girls from Egypt, the operation requiring teams of doctors and lasting some three days.

As an aside, this writer can personally attest to Carson's skills as he performed a skull enlargement operation at the Johns Hopkins hospital in 1998 that allowed my grandson Tristan Vesely's brain to grow to its normal size.

Carson's keen hand-eye coordination and his ability to envision objects in three dimensions enabled him to perform the operation with perfect surgical skill. Tristan is now a bright, over-achieving nine-year-old instead of a handicapped boy facing life's challenges with difficulty.

As Carson said at the time: "This operation will allow Tristan to aim for the US Presidency should he wish to." With a career spanning over 20 years, Carson is known for his exceptional neuro-surgery skills, his three books and for the many humanitarian efforts he has launched with his accomplished wife Candy.

RELATED ARTICLE: Energy

The US economy embraces a diverse group of major industries, among which are the multi-national energy companies.

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In this group one company, CAMAC Holdings, stands out, not least for the fact that it is run by Nigerian-born KASE L LAWAL (right). As a Houston-based energy distributor and producer, CAMAC Holdings topped the list of largest black-owned businesses in 2002 on the Black Enterprise list of industrial and service companies. With impressive earnings of $979.51m in 2001 and employing over 1,000 staff, this company is a leader among the 100 largest African-American companies in the US, boasting a total of $11.5bn of revenues in 2002.

RELATED ARTICLE: Culture

No review of Black History Month can be complete without mention of the growing involvement of African-Americans with the Kwanza festival, a "first fruit" festival celebrating black America's cultural heritage.

Created on the west coast of America in 1966 by DR MAULANA KARENGA, a trained political and cultural scientist, the festival has struck a cord among African-Americans seeking their own identity. As a "holiday of the first fruits" it is akin to white Americans celebrating the landing of the "Founding Fathers" and represents a clear and precise sense of "identity, purpose and direction" for the African-American community.

"It comes directly out of the tradition of agricultural people in Africa," Karenga says in expounding on the festival. "The roots of Kwanza are continental African but the branches are distinctly African-American. It celebrates the natural and profound connection of the African-American people to their ancestral beginnings and celebrates the cultural dynamism of Black Americans."

The celebration of African-American achievement during the Black History Month is also a celebration of Africa--the mother source of this dynamic community in the Diaspora. The next logical step is for the two strands of Africa to come together and bring in other Africans in the daispora to create an economic and cultural bond that would give concrete reality to the dream of African renaissance.