Getting Ohio’s presidential election results overturned isn’t Jesse Jackson’s only project this week. Yesterday began the eighth annual Rainbow/PUSH Wall Street Project conference, a three-day event dedicated to “increasing economic opportunities for minorities.”

The conference, held at the Hilton New York Hotel, was kicked off with a keynote address by Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, a 2006 gubernatorial candidate.

The attorney general denounced banks that use so-called predatory lending against members of minority groups, a practice Mr. Spitzer has fought during his tenure in Albany.

He also criticized the federal Office of the Comptroller of Currency for helping those banks move from state to federal charters – a preemptive measure for banks to avoid the kinds of state-level regulation-by-litigation for which Mr. Spitzer’s office has become known.

One of his upcoming projects, Mr. Spitzer said, will be “using the laws that are there to ensure fair representation of the control of capital,” but he expressed concern that “with more judges appointed by Reagan, Bush, and this Bush, who knows what is going to happen?”

Mr. Spitzer’s remarks were delivered during a seated dialogue with Mr. Jackson, who compared the Wall Street culture to segregated baseball before 1947, bemoaning the paucity of minority-group individuals on the boards of mutual funds and among managers of university endowments.

Mr. Jackson said it was time to “use the leverage of the law and public relations to expose these boards.” He said that “by locking out blacks and women,” they do a disservice to their investors.

“I could not agree with you more,” Mr. Spitzer responded, saying his office “will uphold the law, and the possibilities under the law,” to propel mutual fund and corporate boards toward greater minority representation.

After Mr. Spitzer had departed, Mr. Jackson told the audience: “We need a good presence of black and Latino lawyers on Wall Street to bring lawsuits to open up Wall Street for minority opportunities.”

Mr. Spitzer is not the only elected official to support the conference: Senators Schumer and Clinton will also participate. At a press conference following the attorney general’s comments, Manhattan borough president C. Virginia Fields, Mayor John Street of Philadelphia, and Rep. Corrine Brown, Democrat of Florida, joined Mr. Jackson in criticizing corporate America for what they perceived as its exclusion of minorities.

The press conference focused heavily on minority participation in the upper echelons of the sports industry.

“We can’t go from picking cotton balls to picking footballs,” Mr. Jackson said, adding that the black community wanted “open access” to franchise ownership and management, as well as a greater role in the development of sports stadiums.

Stadium construction was a familiar subject for Mr. Street, who said he was proud of the minority involvement in the construction of two new sports stadiums in Philadelphia, for the Eagles and the Phillies.

Ms. Fields, who is seeking the Democratic mayoral nomination, spoke of the proposed Jets stadium on the far West Side, saying: “Minorities and women must be a part of that development, and it has to be meaningful participation.” She said she considered minority inclusion in the West Side development part of her responsibility as borough president, and said it would be a priority were she to become mayor. Increasing minority representation, Ms. Fields said, is a matter of “political will.”

To some of Mr. Jackson’s critics, however, exercising political will in behalf of Rainbow/PUSH’s projects is a misguided effort.

The vice president of the Center for Equal Opportunity, Roger Clegg, said Mr. Jackson’s and Mr. Spitzer’s proposals to use the law to increase minority representation on mutual-fund boards would be unsuccessful, because “the law prohibits racial discrimination, it doesn’t demand it.”

Mr. Clegg, whose organization – based in Sterling, Va. – was founded by former federal official Linda Chavez, also said it would have a harmful effect on markets, because consumers expect mutual funds to be driven by the bottom line and assume companies will not sacrifice financial success “on the altar of political correctness.” The only color that should matter on Wall Street, Mr. Clegg said, “is green.”

A radio talk-show host from California, the Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson, labeled the annual conference a “shakedown” and said Mr. Jackson’s period of influence had passed. “He’s a desperate old man trying to regain power,” Mr. Peterson said.

The author of “Scam: How the Black Leadership Exploits Black America,” Mr. Peterson said Mr. Jackson’s efforts didn’t benefit the black community but worked only to the advantage of Mr. Jackson and his closest associates.

Mr. Peterson added that some of the best ways to increase minority access to capital and investment are being implemented by President Bush, who has advocated an “ownership society” in which, among other things, Americans of all races could invest a portion of their Social Security payroll taxes. That, Mr. Peterson said, would do much more than the Wall Street Project to familiarize blacks with investment and the markets.

Mr. Jackson denounced Mr. Bush’s plan as a “high-risk proposition” and denied that it would achieve the Wall Street Project’s aim of furthering “financial literacy” among minorities.

That attitude, Mr. Peterson said, is part of why Mr. Jackson no longer represents the black community and why he will increasingly find himself out of political favor.

He said that to the extent Mr. Jackson still receives support from “Democratic political leaders,” it is because “they think he still has somewhat of an influence over black voters … but don’t realize that he doesn’t have the same mental control over the black community that he had in the past.” Mr. Peterson predicted a political backlash against elected officials who continue to associate themselves with Mr. Jackson.

Many of the elected officials present at the conference, however, felt differently.

Ms. Brown said: “Those who criticize him don’t speak for the black community. Poll after poll shows that Reverend Jackson is the most respected African-American in the country and the world, and I’m proud to be his supporter.”

Mr. Street said Mr. Jackson’s critics “are jealous of him, or intimidated by him, or they just don’t know the importance of his work.”

A spokeswoman for Mr. Spitzer said: “We believe that Reverend Jackson has been a leader in addressing issues that affect the minority community, and we applaud his leadership.”

The conference continues through tomorrow and includes an awards luncheon, the unveiling of PBS’s documentary “Slavery and the Making of America,” and a discussion of the “Business of Hip Hop, R &B and Urban Music.”