The Clinton Foundation will host a domestic policy conference next month in Little Rock.
Titled "Economic Inclusion and Growth: The Way Forward," the Nov. 20 event will feature former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, plus government, business and nonprofit leaders.
The program will "emphasize the need for a collective effort to drive action and help financial growth partners scale impact, [and] address the income gap and racial wealth disparities," the foundation said in a news release. The event will also highlight ways to "better support underserved communities, small businesses and entrepreneurs."
Former Clinton administrations are scheduled to participate, along with mayors, lenders, investors and community activists.
The 42nd president announced plans for the daylong event, to be held at the Clinton Presidential Center, while he was in Washington, D.C., on Monday addressing the annual conference of the Opportunity Finance Network.
Roughly 1,500 people attended Tuesday's conference, which marked the 25th anniversary of the creation of the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund.
Launched as a result of the Riegle Community Development Banking and Financial Institutions Act of 1994, the fund provides federal assistance for financial institutions in economically disadvantaged communities.
Lisa Mensah, the network's president and CEO, told audience members that they are "the living legacy of the movement that President Clinton signed and ignited 25 years ago."
"President Clinton dreamed big, but I'm not sure that even President Clinton could have imagined and predicted this day," she told the crowd. "We've grown to a big wonderful field of more than 1,000 CDFIs. We went from having $4 billion [in] assets 25 years ago to now having assets of $185 billion. And with these assets, we lend where it counts."
The fund is just one of the Clinton-era programs that were designed to combat poverty. Others included Rural Empowerment Zones and the New Market Tax Credit, which aimed to spark growth in some of the nation's poorest areas.
During his remarks, Clinton recalled the poverty that Arkansas faced early in his life.
"When I was born in World War II, right at the end of World War II, my native state had a per capita income 56% of the national average. Only Mississippi was lower at 48," Clinton said.
His own grandfather, James Eldridge Cassidy, sold groceries and provided credit in an underserved community, Clinton recalled.
"Almost all of his customers were African Americans, and there were no food stamps or any of that," Clinton said. "So when people were working and not getting paid, which happened frequently, he just gave them credit because he said, 'If you're working, you deserve to feed your kids.'"
When Cassidy died in his late 50s, he left behind an account book that outlined the credit he had extended during his lifetime, Clinton recalled.
Metro on 10/23/2019