Philadelphia Black Leaders Contact Live 8 Talent to Aid in Fight for Economic Equality

Philadelphia Black Leaders Contact Live 8 Talent to Aid in Fight for Economic Equality

PHILADELPHIA, June 24 /PRNewswire/ -- The Philadelphia African-American Chamber of Commerce (AACC) today announced that the AACC has distributed letters to six entertainers who are scheduled to appear at the July 2 Philadelphia Live 8 concert, requesting the entertainers' support for the inclusion of African Americans in the concert's promotion and production- related contracts and employment opportunities.

The AACC also requested, if the city of Philadelphia does not move to ensure equitable levels of African-American inclusion in the concert, that the entertainers withdraw from Live 8 participation.

Among those receiving overnight mailings from the AACC were Bon Jovi, P. Diddy, Stevie Wonder, Will Smith, Destiny's Child and Def Jam's Russell Simmons.

Despite the AACC's June 14 formal request to the City for African-American business and employee inclusion, and an AACC-sponsored press conference on the same subject on Monday of this week, the city of Philadelphia has yet to respond to the request.

The AACC has pointed out that Philadelphia has a long history of excluding black businesses from full economic participation and that it is hypocritical of the city to participate in an event whose purpose is to bring economic equity to Africans, while Philadelphia continues to actively discriminate against black businesses locally.

Source: African-American Chamber of Commerce

CONTACT: A. Bruce Crawley, Crawley Haskins Sloan, +1-215-922-7184,
crawley-haskins@att.net, for the African-American Chamber of Commerce

Web site: http://www.aachamber.org/

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