Black Enterprise has released their 42nd annual report on Black business and ranking of the country's top-performing Black owned companies, the Black Enterprise 100s. This year's list includes 60 automotive dealers, plus top advertising companies, banks, investment firms and private equity firms. 

The first "Top 100" list, released in 1973, represented a total of $473 million dollars in sales for the companies listed. Today's companies collectively grossed over $21.8 billion dollars in 2013, $2 billion dollars more than the previous year, and employ 56, 452 people. 

The report also includes the 2013 Black Enterprise Companies of the year:

Industrial/Service Company of the Year: ChemicoMays L.L.C., Southfield, MI; CEO, Leon C. Richardson. Business: Chemical Management Services

Auto Dealer of the Year: Rodgers Chevrolet Inc., Woodhaven, MI; CEO, Pamela Rodgers. Business: Retail sales for GM

Financial Services Company of the Year: Vista Equity Partners, San Francisco, CA; CEO, Robert F. Smith. Business: Private Equity (focus on technology)

Advertising Agency of the Year: commonground marketing, Chicago, IL; CEOs, Sherman Wright/Ahmad Islam

"The BE 100s – the nation's largest black businesses – continue to be the standard bearers for all American enterprises, demonstrating that sustained business growth comes when ideation and innovation is wedded to execution and excellence." says the magazine's Senior VP/Editor-in-Chief Derek T. Dingle. "As such, most exhibit elasticity, capability, technological adaptability and branding power in a seesaw economic recovery and hyper-competitive business environment."