On Tuesday, Jan. 2, U.S. Congresswoman Nikema Williams told the Russell Center she’d be hosting a guest and would like to visit the campus. Her guest would be the U.S. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries. Two days later, Jeffries and Williams would visit the Russell Innovation Center for Entrepreneurs. They were joined by Georgia State Representative Inga Willis, a Democrat from Atlanta. Leading the tour was the President and CEO of the Russell Center, Jay Bailey. 

During the tour, Jeffries learned the Russell Center recently took their cadre of entrepreneurs based in their incubation center to Colombia to drive economic development in Afro-Caribbean communities. He also discovered the ways which RICE has been able to leverage partnerships with companies such as Mastercard, Wells Fargo, Wal-Mart and more in order to drive more than $600 million in investment directed towards Black entrepreneurs under their stewardship.

Jeffries came away impressed with the high and comprehensive level of providing services and resources to Black-owned businesses and Black entrepreneurs in every stage of a business’s life cycle. But it’s nothing new to the City of Atlanta. 

With Atlanta’s first Black mayor, Maynard Holbrook Jackson, Jr. and the trailblazing businessman, Herman J. Russell, is a throughline over the last 50 years of Black leadership in the public and private sectors. Jefferies was asked if the federal government could take what is done here, and replicate this in cities like Chicago, Charlotte, Nashville, Memphis and elsewhere?

“There’s been a real commitment, led by President Biden and vice president Harris, to lean into the growth and development of…