From NPR Fight Against Poverty Needs Corporate Players. In the early 1980s, commentator Alexs Pate worked for a company called City Venture Corporation, which pooled big companies' resources to tackle inner-city poverty. It failed. Now, Pate says, it's time to try again to involve corporate America in the inner city. Pate is the author of the novel Amistad and is an assistant professor in African American and African Studies at the University of Minnesota. [NPR Programs: All Things Considered]  ¶ 8:26 AM