Biography of Earl Gilbert Graves, Jr.

Name: Earl Gilbert Graves, Jr.
Birth Date: January 9, 1935
Death Date: N/A
Place of Birth: New York, New York, United States
Nationality: American
Gender: Male
Occupations: publisher

Earl Gilbert Graves, Jr.

American publishing magnate Earl Graves (born 1935) launched his empire in 1972 with Black Enterprise magazine. Coming less than a decade after new U.S. federal civil rights legislation had been enacted, the magazine soon became the standard-bearer for upwardly mobile African Americans.Working-Class Family UpbringingGraves was born in Brooklyn, New York, on January 9, 1935, and grew up in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood. His father worked as a shipping clerk in New York's garment district. Bedford-Stuyvesant, far from the nightclubs and jazz of Harlem, was home to many similar working-class black families. Many owned their own homes, as Graves later pointed out in an interview with Los Angeles Times writer Lee Romney. "I swept the sidewalk once a day and God forbid if I didn't bring the garbage cans in after the garbage had been collected," he recalled. "From that environment came the idea of wanting to do something of my own...." Still, entrepreneurship …showed first 150 words…

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…showed last 150 words…African Americans. By showcasing their achievements as well as gaining a forum to address the issues of the day, we helped fuel the aspirations of generations of black entrepreneurs and business people."In the same issue, he wrote: "We wanted to show our readers a better way and, at the same time, communicate to the business world, from Madison Avenue to Wall Street, that there was a viable black consumer market. It was my vision to show a more positive side of African American participation in the business mainstream. Along the way, we would carve a path for future generations." Further Reading Business Leader Profiles for Students, Volume 1, Gale, 1999. Contemporary Black Biography, Volume 35, edited by Ashyia Henderson, Gale, 2002. Beverage World, October 1992.Black Enterprise, August 1995; February 1998; August 2000.Booklist, April 1, 1997.Changing Times, November 1990.Directors & Boards, Spring 1997.Jet, December 21, 1998.Library Journal, April 15, 1997.Los Angeles Times, October 14, 1998.Publishers Weekly, April 7, 1997.Washington Post, June 17, 1997.

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