Chuck Dixon would gladly tell you how much of a HOSTILE environment he dealt with from comic book stores for his book Strike. He threw a fit about it in one of the letter pages. Strike was the last ongoing black book in the 80s.
In terms of black teen (or college aged) heroes-the other option was Rocket Racer.
Rocket Racer could not be used because he was with the Outlaws and SOMEBODY thought enough of him to have Tony Isabella write stories for him that appeared in various Spider-Man books.
New Warriors were popular enough that a spinoff book was planned before Marvel's money issues derailed a LOT of stuff. New Warriors 50 wold have shown this.
Night Thrasher was popular enough to get a mini that lead to an ongoing and talks of a tv series on UPN in 2002.
I would think McDuffie & Priest who were editors at Marvel at the time appreciate that accusation. If it was not for Conan-Priest was out the door at Marvel. McDuffie founded Milestone for a REASON.They didn’t think the black characters would be accepted.
They can only do what they are ALLOWED to do. Same as today.
Transformers was suppose to be 3 issues. It went 80.Books can always be extended. Amazing Mary Jane was a five issue mini that's now been extended to ten issues, and Agents of Atlas has had three consecutive minis.
Hudlin's Panther was suppose to be a mini-it went 40+.
Ms Marvel (Khan) was EXPECTED to fail with 6 issues-50+ issues and counting.