Rankings: Black Is Bountiful

Minority capitalists may be jittery about cutbacks in Government programs designed to help them, but many are doing just fine anyway. Black Enterprise magazine, in its annual ranking of the top 100 black-owned companies, reported last week that the group's total revenues grew by 14.8% in 1985, to $2.9 billion. That puts to shame the FORTUNE 500, which posted a sales increase of just 2.8% last year. In the black-owned group, computer firms and other high- tech ventures showed some of the strongest increases. One such company, Maxima of Rockville, Md., which provides computer services to the Government, boosted sales 24.3% last year, to $28.4 million, putting it in 27th place on the Black Enterprise list. The fastest-growing company in the group is Houston's Lawson National Distributing, a bus-assembling firm, which grew 141% in 1985, to $26.5 million.

The largest corporation in the rankings for the third year in a row is Chicago's Johnson Publishing (1985 revenues: $154.8 million), which owns Ebony and Jet magazines, manufactures cosmetics and produces TV shows. The next largest are Motown Industries ($149 million), the entertainment company now based in Los Angeles, and H.J. Russell Construction ($118 million), an Atlanta developer.