NY Attorney General Joins Jackson in Plea to Increase Corporate Opportunity for Minorities

State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, speaking at a conference on economic equality, said Tuesday that his civil rights unit will study minority representation on corporate boards and whether state law governs how those boards are put together. "We're just going to take a look and see how the state laws might or might not apply," Spitzer said at a breakfast opening the 2005 Wall Street Project, organized by the Rev. Jesse Jackson and his Rainbow/PUSH civil rights organization. The conference advocates for increasing economic opportunity for communities of color, from getting access to loans to being named to seats on corporate boards and having decision-making power over investments. Jackson put forth data showing that minorities are only a small percentage of board members, and manage only tiny fractions of the vast amounts of money flowing through the financial world. He also criticized predatory lending in communities of color. Spitzer, who gained international attention with investigations of Wall Street brokers, mutual fund executives and the insurance industry, announced in December that he will seek the Democratic nomination for governor. He said there were effective laws against predatory lending, but "there is a genuine effort underfoot right now to undercut the enforcement of those laws." He criticized federal efforts to have national banks exempted from state consumer protection laws. [more]

• Pictured above: New York state Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, left, meets with Rev. Jesse Jackson prior to an economic summit breakfast of Jackson's Wall Street Project Conference, in New York Tuesday Jan. 11, 2005. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)