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                Keynote Speaker Atty: Anthony W. Robinson calls for a 
                         New Paradigm In Our Communities


    At the 32nd Anniversary Dinner of The Broward County Minority Builders Coalition Inc, held on Thursday night, October 23, 2003, at the Sheraton Suites, Cypress Creek Hotel, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, The President of the Baltimore, Maryland¹s based Minority Business Enterprise Legal Defense and Education Fund (MBELDEF) made it clear that African Americans are not fully utilizing their "Buying Power" to influence Federal, State, Regional and Local Government¹s public policies and corporate America¹s market/public relations strategies.

    E. Pat Larkins and the planners of this successful Business Affaire must be elated at the large turnout of African Americans from the legal and constructional sectors at this function. On a humorous note, The Mistress of Ceremonies, the former Broward County Commissioner, Sylvia Poitier remarked that she loves her role for that night because this Organization has a strong financial base and does not go out to the Black Community seeking funds to put on their annual Anniversary Dinner.

    The Keynote Speaker, Attorney W. Robinson has been very involved in the Judicial and economic empowerment of minority people for more than two decades. This Morgan State University graduate and recipient of a Jurist Doctorate Degree from American University School of Law has the enviable status of being a confidante to former Maryland¹s Congressman Parren J. Mitchell, a co-founder of the Congressional Black Caucus. In his introductory remarks, the prominent African-American Lawyer W. George Allen praised the Keynote Speaker for ³staying with the Movement² when he could have taken advantage of his vast networking connections in Washington D.C. and become a invisible and very rich member of the Black Urban professionals. From the outset, it was clear that attorney Anthony W. Robinson was a defiant opponent of the Bush dynasty at the Federal and State Levels. In addressing the Coalition¹s Theme ³Accepting the Challenge of The New Millennium,² he reminded his audience that he was here not for a feel good speech, by stating, ³I am here to have a conversation on where we are in this Cause known as Minority Business Development. Quite frankly I am very concerned. We are whistling in the graveyards.²

    On the eve of the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Supreme Court¹s Watershed decision, Brown versus the Board of Education, Topeka, Kansas there are serious concerns whether the African-American Community is retrogressing or advancing. Attorney Anthony W. Robinson believes that if serious decisions are not taken, the Black race will be in disarray in the very near future, as it was immediately after the April 4th, 1968 assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. ³It was the first time that black folks throughout the country, elected the first class of Congressional representatives, now known as the Congressional Black Caucus. At that first Caucus Dinner, the great Ossie Davis as its Keynote Speaker gave them a challenge. He told them it is not the Man; ³it is the Plan so that the next time one of our leaders is assassinated the Race will not be in disarray. The Caucus proceeded to develop a plan for the economic empowerment of the black family.²

    Three decades later, there is an urgent need for a re-assessment of the Black Congressional Caucus Plan of Action. It was a refreshing course on the ³History of the Movement² when the Keynote Speaker drew heavily on his Political Science background and close relationship with former Congressman Parren J. Mitchell to make clear that the heirs of the non-violent and violent phases of the 1960¹s ­ 1970 Civil Rights Movement have failed to maximize the benefits of the heroic activities of those who set in motion the irreversible remapping of this internal apartheid society. We were reminded that the three ingredients of the Black Congressional Caucus Family Plan were based on access to (1) Public Policy (2) Capital and (3) Technology. ³That revolutionary plan advocated African-Americans used public policy to get access to Capital. Those initial members of the Black Congressional Caucus by purpose get appointed to all the Congressional Committees.² 

    The President of the Minority Business Enterprise Legal Defense and Educational Fund, singled out his mentor, Parren J. Mitchell for the role he played within the Black Congressional Caucus which culminated in the Federal Government¹s Set-Aside Program which the Bush Dynasty is committed to reverse at both the National and in our immediate case in Florida, inspite of Halliburton and its preferential deals in the reconstruction of Post Saddam Hussein¹s Iraq. ³Set-Aside is American as American Pie, warned Parren J. Mitchell. This tool to empower minority entrepreneurs has been challenged since 1971by greedy contractors in every state. Looking at the totality of the Construction business it is just a small percentage of the US$400 billion Industry. For Black Builders, it is less than US$5 billion.²

    There are serious attempts by the Republican White House over the past three decades to curb the benefits of these Set-Aside programs. Attorney Robinson mentioned the 1989 Supreme Court¹s decision in the Richmond, Virginia¹s set-aside case, which, it deemed unconstitutional for making preferential conditionalities exclusively for minorities. There are numerous attempts by white contractors to restrict minority accesses to at least a miniscule percentage of the burgeoning Federal, State and Regional construction contracts. He bemoaned ³these assaults on the use of Public Policy as an engine to drive economic development; these are attempts to return or keep us economically marginal. A constant burden has been put on these programs and makes is so difficult for them to be effective. Furthermore, new group of beneficiaries, white women etc. have resulted in a lack of capacity to access finance for black contractors.² 

    In spite of the direct attacks on these set-asides programs by the Bush Dynasty and the predominantly Reaganite Supreme Court, the African-American entrepreneurial environment has become the sixth largest economy in the global community. With disposal income of US $ 450-600 Billion, the keynote speaker sees this monstrous economic clout as the bargaining tool to change the paradigm within our society. ³The world has tapped into our buying power everyday.² With this enormous buying power, African-Americans, he argues, must use it as a weapon to get favorable Public Policies at the National, State, Regional and Local Levels. According to him, African-Americans have not received their ³ethnic respect² within the Global Community due to the fact ³we have not recognized the importance of our Market Share. To recognize this, we have to have a new paradigm in our community. Our communities are dying and if we are going to empower ourselves we must recognize our market share. We must defend our market share. It can be longer the business guys in our communities. It has to be that political class, the Black Clergy and our Civic Organizations. We have to recognize how we spend our money and how to use it as a tool to empower ourselves both politically and economically.²

    On a worrisome note, this prominent advocate of minority entrepreneurship mentioned that African-Americans are not engaged in ³ethnic solidarity² when they spend their money. In a case of supreme mockery of Black Solidarity, he was stunned in a visit to a Black Church site in Fort Lauderdale. There was a glaring absence of a Black Contractor and only a handful of Black Construction Workers. ³These types of omissions constantly occur in the building of schools and roads in the Black Community.² In an unapologetic vein, Attorney Anthony W. Robinson decried such negative entrepreneurial developments and he encouraged more racial solidarity amongst those in the construction business.

    Prior to the Keynote Speaker¹s powerful lecture, The Jones Company was the recipient of the Reverend Samuel Deloioe¹s Member of the Year¹s Award. The Dedicated Service of the Year Award went to Clinton Peart who has fully recovered from open-heart surgery. The Coalition felt it was most appropriate that it gives an Appreciative Award to Ms. Coleen Robb who did so much within the Palm Beach County¹s School District which accumulated in a thirty (30) percent set aside program for minority contractors. 

By: Rovan Locke

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