Why Helping Minority Owned Businesses Is Still Important

In the late Sixties, minority-owned businesses found the most unlikely of friends in Richard Nixon. Nixon, a Republican, motivated by politics and an inner belief made minority business enterprise a part of his 1968 presidential election platform.

On March 5, 1969, Nixon signed Executive Order 11458 establishing the Office of Minority Business Enterprise later renamed as the Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA). Its mission is to promote the growth and competitiveness of minority owned businesses by providing access to consultation, capital, contracts and other opportunities both domestically and abroad.

Despite Nixon’s dubious legacy, he believed that “Black Capitalism” was the best way for minorities to create wealth. In a speech to Congress he stated,

“The best way to fight poverty and to break the vicious circle of dependence and despair which affects too many Americans is by fostering conditions which encourage those who have been so afflicted to play a more self-reliant and independent economic role.”

His commitment to making good on his campaign promise led him to bypass Congress and…