[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 32, Number 35 (Monday, September 2, 1996)]
[Page 1497]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Proclamation 6913--Minority Enterprise Development Week, 1996

August 23, 1996

By the President of the United States

of America

A Proclamation

    As our Nation continues to surge forward in the competitive arena of 
international business, minority entrepreneurs are playing an 
increasingly important role. In the new global economy, minority-owned 
businesses represent a unique advantage for the United States; the 
diversity of our national business community is one of its main 
strengths. Behind this success lies the daily work of thousands of 
minority business men and women who are continuing to renew the validity 
of the American Dream. Moreover, they are showing that the Dream is 
strongest when all can participate.
    These Americans have stepped forward to accept several challenges: 
the challenge of opening economic participation to all citizens; the 
challenge of overcoming the under-representation of minorities in 
business ownership and management; and the challenge of creating jobs in 
the communities where they are needed most. These minority entrepreneurs 
entered the marketplace with no guarantees of success, and their 
achievements have helped level the playing field for others who wish to 
follow in their footsteps.
    Minority business leaders contribute to our country's cultural and 
social heritage as well as to its economic health. As business pioneers, 
they are valuable role models to our youth, living heroes whose hard 
work and self-empowerment are strong examples for others to follow. 
These are the people whose work we celebrate during this 14th annual 
observance of Minority Enterprise Development Week. This year's 
observance is particularly poignant. It comes just months after our 
Nation lost Commerce Secretary Ron Brown and a group of talented and 
dedicated Federal employees and American business people in a tragic 
plane crash during a trade mission to open commercial opportunities for 
American businesses in Bosnia.
    Ron Brown worked hard to include minority business interests in our 
Nation's business and economic development policies, and as we carry 
forward his legacy, it is our responsibility to ensure that all 
Americans can see business ownership as more than just a dream. Our 
future as a world economic power rests on the notion that business 
ownership can be attained by anyone willing to work toward that goal. 
Minority Enterprise Development Week is a time to spotlight the minority 
men and women who provide the goods, services, and jobs that keep this 
Nation strong. These Americans support their communities and inspire 
future generations. They are confident and competent people whose 
commercial accomplishments show them to be equal to any fair 
competition, whether here or abroad.
    Now, Therefore, I, William J. Clinton, President of the United 
States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the 
Constitution and laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim September 
22 through September 28, 1996, as Minority Enterprise Development Week. 
I call on all citizens to commemorate this week with appropriate 
ceremonies and activities, joining together to recognize the 
contributions that minority entrepreneurs make to our Nation's economy.
    In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-third 
day of August, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and ninety-six, 
and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred 
and twenty-first.
                                            William J. Clinton

[Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 11:43 a.m., August 26, 
1996]

Note: This proclamation was published in the Federal Register on August 
27, and it was not received in time for publication in the appropriate 
issue.