CHICAGO, June 30 (UPI) -- John Deere and Co., the world's largest farm equipment manufacturer, is being challenged to create at least 20 minority-owned franchises by 2014.
Rev. Jesse Jackson Wednesday said Moline, Ill.-based Deere does business in more than 160 countries, including Latin America, Brazil and Africa, but has never established a single black-owned dealership in its long 136-year history.
Jackson says there are qualified black dealers in the United States and elsewhere who would do a great job as a Deere franchisee.
"They may have some diversity in their employees, but no inclusion in their ownership/franchise base," Jackson said at the 33rd annual Rainbow/PUSH Coalition Conference in Chicago.
"We do not have an equitable, fair share. And we must redefine this relationship."
John Deere, a journeyman blacksmith, developed the first successful self-scouring steel plow that helped prairie homesteaders settle the rich U.S. heartland in the 1800s.
