According to a recent Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) study, racial and ethnic minorities, to include African Americans, are represented on only about 4% of Fortune 500 company boards of directors. The underrepresentation of African Americans in leadership roles in business has implications that reach far beyond the boundaries of personal income or the corporate bottom line. Clearly, education in general, and obtaining a postsecondary degree from an institution of higher learning can be a key to advancement. African Americans have historically lagged behind the white population in earning postsecondary degrees. Over the last twenty years, numerous programs have been implemented to deal with the proportionately small number of blacks entering college and ultimately being awarded a degree. This study reports on the structure and success of Project BUILD (Business United In Leadership Development), a program developed to foster, in high achieving black high school juniors, an interest in pursuing a business degree and in business as a career. First, the authors report on the labor force, enrollment and degree attainment trends of blacks in the U.S. over the last twenty-five years. The authors then consider the rationale for improving the participation rates of blacks in business. The program itself, and the study methodology are then described and presented. (Contains 11 tables.)