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Acknowledgments I would like to take this opportunity to thank a number of key individuals and organizations for their support during the preparation of this book. First, I would like to thank the Ohio Board of Regents for awarding me a two-year challenge grant of $64,000 for 1997–99 that provided the funding to perform the study. This economic support enabled me to go the step beyond to expand the parameters of the complex debate on economic development policy and its implications for African American entrepreneurs. I am equally indebted to the Ohio Urban University Program for a grant award of $7,079 that provided research funding for me to perform the initial pilot study that laid the cornerstone for the findings discussed in this study. In particular, I am grateful to Jim Tinnin, former director of the Center for Public Administration and Public Policy at Kent State University (KSU) and Melinda Holmes, assistant director of the center, for their kind words of encouragement. Their faith in me and in this project have been truly meaningful. I am especially grateful to the Cleveland Foundation for two three-year grant awards of about $400,000 for 1999–2006, which enabled me to implement the findings of this study by providing technical training and workshops to African American entrepreneurs in the greater Cleveland metropolitan area. In particular, I wish to thank Steven Minter, former president and chief executive officer of the Cleveland Foundation; members of the foundation’s board of trustees; and Steve Rowan, former program officer for economic development. I am equally grateful to the city of Cleveland Empowerment Zone, Mayor Frank G. Jackson and former mayor Jane Campbell for two contract awards for almost $700,000 in federal funding through Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to establish the Entrepreneurial Academy for the Cleveland Empowerment Zone. This contract enabled us to provide much-needed business training and support to residents of the Empowerment Zone communities of Hough, Glenville, Fairfax, and the Midtown Corridor. To date, I have written and received fifteen grant or contract awards for both research and outreach business training activities totaling more than $1.2 million dollars and we are grateful. xix I want to thank John Hubbell, director emeritus of the Kent State University Press, who took a special interest in the initial project for the first edition of this book and worked very closely with me to finalize the original manuscript. I also thank Will Underwood, the press’s current director, who has worked with me very effectively to produce the second edition of this book. I also appreciate the efforts of Mary Young, Joanna Hildebrand Craig, Susan Cash, the rest of the staff at the KSU Press, and the reviewers of the manuscript. Their comments were insightful and greatly enhanced my work. I would like to acknowledge the comments and suggestions of Don Williams (department of economics, KSU) and Ilon Alon, as well as Caroline Tolbert on ways to strengthen this work. All these individuals gave of their time willingly in order to enhance the status of this research project. Dr. Williams and Dr. Tolbert provided detailed comments and suggestions on ways to strengthen my manuscript, and I am deeply appreciative of their efforts. Dr. Alon took an ardent interest in my research proposal and volunteered a great deal of time to assist me with the statistical tests and analyses on the data from my pilot study. I am deeply indebted to Felix K. Ekechi (professor emeritus of history, KSU), who has become over the years a second father figure for me. Dr. Ekechi has spent literally hundreds of hours mentoring me and providing suggestions through the years to help me to fine-tune my research skills. He has also given me much invaluable advice on numerous things that I could do to enhance my professional and academic activities. It is indeed rare to find such a friend. I am eternally grateful for his help. I also want to thank David Belasco, who served as a statistical consultant on this project, and my dear friend Angela Neal-Barnett for her constant words of support. I would also like to thank Toyin Falola and Nolan P. Ellison for their support. I am equally grateful to Joe Danks, former professor and dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Kent State University, and Byron Lander, former chair of the Kent State political science department, under whose tenure I began my initial research on this...

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