The difficult road that blacks still face in the heart of America's financial capital was underscored by news on Wednesday that brokerage giant Merrill Lynch has agreed to pay $160 million to settle racial discrimination claims by black brokers.
Despite what would be the biggest race-discrimination lawsuit payout ever by an American employer, Wall Street-based or otherwise, King's dream remains just that for blacks trying to get hired, promoted and paid well in the financial industry.
A lawyer for the 700 Merrill Lynch brokers who sued said the alleged pattern of under-hiring black brokers, and Merrill's practices of allocating customers that allegedly made it more difficult for those brokers to build business are not unique to that firm.
"They filed this lawsuit for all the right reasons. To not only change Merrill Lynch, but also to change Wall Street," said the lawyer Suzanne Bish of Chicago-based Stowell & Friedman. "It was not an issue that was limited to Merrill Lynch, the under-employment of African-Americans and revolving doors of African-Americans."
