In August 1970, the visionary Founder and Publisher Earl G. Graves, Sr. launched a publication and gave birth to a media company that to this day has enabled generations of African Americans to achieve “wealth for life” through building thriving businesses, gaining mobility in corporate America
, and embracing sound money management and disciplined investing. As a result, it has been a source of inspiration and guidance for African Americans to become full participants in the economic mainstream as captains of industry, executives of immeasurable influence and multigenerational wealth builders.Charles Evers, the late mayor of Fayette, Mississippi, served as the magazine’s first cover subject and embodied Black entrepreneurs that emerged from the Civil Rights Movement and demonstrated the qualities required to be successful: Business savvy, political muscle and boundless determination.
A member of BLACK ENTERPRISE‘s first advisory board, he developed and operated the profitable Medgar Evers Shopping Center, named in honor of his brother, the prominent civil rights leader slain by an assassin’s bullet in 1963.
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