Business opportunities abound in South, leader says

The 71-year-old founder of Black Enterprise magazine says if he had to relive his life again, the Northeast wouldn't be where he'd live. He'd target the South because of its business opportunities.

“The South is where you need to be,” [Earl G.] Graves [Sr.] told students at USC’s Moore School of Business, referring to the region’s job growth and friendly small-business environment. “There’s a genuine opportunity here in the South if you’re serious about success.”

Graves, a native of New York, also pushed improvements to education and more workplace diversity in a story published today by The (Columbia, S.C.) State.

“The march toward opportunity ... is in real danger of marching right back into the shadows of disenfranchisement,” Graves said, mentioning shortcomings in public housing and schools, drug laws, manufacturing jobs and immigration policy.