ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, November 30, 1996 TAG: 9612020035
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: A-9 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: NEW YORK
SOURCE: Bloomberg Business News
DEMONSTRATORS voiced fears that minorities will lose out in NationsBank's acquisition of Boatmen's Bancshares.
NationsBank Corp.'s plan to acquire Boatmen's Bancshares Inc. was denounced Friday by dozens of chanting demonstrators from St. Louis who marched past the New York Stock Exchange.
They gathered to voice their fears that the combined banks won't treat minorities in St. Louis fairly.
Harry Alford, president and chief executive of the National Black Chamber of Commerce in Washington, said his organization would appeal to the Federal Reserve Board to reject NationsBank's planned $8.7 billion acquisition of Boatmen's, which has its headquarters in St. Louis.
Alford called Charlotte-based NationsBank ``carpetbaggers from North Carolina'' and said ``the black community is getting shortchanged,'' Alford said. ``We want everyone to know they shouldn't buy Boatmen's shares.''
NationsBank defended its record.
The company's spokesman Melba Spencer said NationsBank ``has a strong record in the area of minority lending, community investment and community investment-lending.'' Boatmen's officials were not available to comment on the protest, a spokeswoman said.
For more than an hour on a frigid post-Thanksgiving morning, the demonstrators jeered and brandished signs, underscoring a demand that NationsBank should increase the amount of money it plans to allot to loans for minorities and minority-owned businesses in St. Louis to $1 billion from $10 million.
In a peaceful but noisy protest, they also waved placards, proclaiming such messages as ``Stop NationsBank Merger,'' ``NationsBank Discriminates,'' ``We Want Jobs'' and ``Teach Wall Street a Lesson.''
``We feel our community should be getting more money for minorities,'' said Eddie Hasan, who identified himself as the St. Louis-based executive director of the Minority Contractors Association. The organization with headquarters in Washington has several state and regional chapters.
Demonstrators said the crowd of about 100 demonstrators mostly hailed from St. Louis and traveled to New York to make their voices heard in a visible location.
Alford said the demonstration took place at Big Board headquarters because ``this is the symbol of merger mania and greed.''
Police took the demonstration seriously. About 60 uniformed New York Police Department officers ringed NYSE headquarters in lower Manhattan.
Police, joined by NYSE security personnel, cordoned off several city blocks in the Wall Street financial district and restricted motor and pedestrian traffic in the area.
Andrew Yemma, spokesman for the NYSE, said the exchange learned about the possibility of a protest about a week ago and alerted the NYPD. The exchange was cautious because the day after Thanksgiving is traditionally one of the busiest times for visits to the exchange by tourists.
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