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Leon H. Sullivan Creator Global Job Training Opportunities, Global Social Activist and Baptist Minister
“Realistically, the only way to solve our problems at this point in our history is by planning our future, clearly and objectively, and then working to make that plan a reality.” Rev. Leon H. Sullivan, author Alternatives to Despair 1972
Back in 1972 the late Leon H. Sullivan, author and innovator of Philadelphia’s Opportunities Industrialization Center, (OIC), was sounding the call to make definitive plans for our future.
“Strangely enough in Philadelphia, the big metropolitan city, you think people had work, but discrimination was still very strong . . . I decided to confront discrimination, again, because businesses were not employing blacks in Philadelphia, blacks couldn’t even get jobs as waiters in the good hotels.”~Rev. Leon Sullivan
Choosing to confront the racial discrimination he witnessed in hiring practices in Philadelphia, he organized 400 other ministers to implement a successful boycott of companies that did not support equal employment opportunity. This demonstration of “selective patronage” resulted in more than 4000 jobs open to dark skinned African Americans. However many still lacked the necessary training to perform the jobs now available.
That is when in 1964 founded in an abandoned jailhouse, the OIC was born.
OIC provides job training and life skills and then couples the graduates with the needs of Philadelphia businesses. So successful was the first endeavor OIC was duplicated in cities around the nation.
Five years later Rev. Leon H. Sullivan’s efforts were replicated on a global scale with the creation of OIC International to supply training and employment for individuals on the African continent.
“I believe not only in milk and honey in heaven but in ham and eggs on earth besides.”~Rev. Leon H. Sullivan, Build Brother Build
Sullivan, who began his ministerial career at age eighteen in his hometown Charleston, West Virginia had a personal experience with bigotry. At age twelve he tried to purchase a Coca Cola at the local drugstore in his town. What happened then inspired his lifelong dedication to opposing racial prejudice. The owner of the store refused to sell the beverage to him saying, “Stand on your feet, boy. You can’t sit here.”
Leon Sullivan went on to graduate West Virginia State University. It was during a visit to West Virginia by Adam Clayton Powell, prominent black minister, noted author and the father of the congressman, that he encouraged Sullivan to come to New York to study theology at the Union Theological Seminary. Sullivan became an assistant minister at the activist Abyssinian Baptist Church in New York City’s Harlem following his studies at Columbia University for a Masters Degree in religion in 1947. While living in New York Leon met Grace whom he married and lovingly called “Amazing Grace”. Together they had three children, Hope, Julie and Howard.
Eventually the family relocated first to Northern New Jersey where Rev. Sullivan was selected to lead the First Baptist Church in Orange, New Jersey.
In 1950 Leon, Grace and their children all moved to Philadelphia because Leon was taking on the leadership role of pastor at the Zion Baptist Church. From 1950 until 1988 Sullivan , known as “the Lion of Zion” served the congregation and community. During this time he increased the membership of 600 to 6,000 making it one of the largest congregations in the U.S.
Rev. Sullivan became the first black man appointed to the board of directors of the world’s largest corporation, General Motors (GM), a Fortune 500 company. At the time General Motors was the largest business entity in the world and Sullivan used this prestigious position with GM to influence decisions particularly in South Africa.
Sullivan launched an international campaign to transform apartheid in South Africa; he created a code of conduct for human rights and equal opportunity for companies operating in South Africa. This code became known as the Sullivan Principles. They Principles were later expanded by Rev. Sullivan and former Secretary General of the United Nations Kofi Annan “to support economic, social and political justice by companies where they do business,” including respect for human rights and equal work opportunities for all peoples.
The most important fact to remember about the late Rev. Leon H. Sullivan is he advocated self-help. He strongly supported empowerment of individuals, institutions and communities through education. Job training and life skills are the foundation for individuals to build successful communities.
Today the organizations that are his legacy, The Leon H. Sullivan Foundation headed by his daughter Hope Masters, Esquire; Opportunities Industrialization Centers Of America, (OIC-America) led by his son Howard H. Sullivan, along with OIC International and the International Foundation For Education and Self Help, (IFESH) guided by his daughter Dr. Julie H. Sullivan; all continue to promote sustainable projects around the world because access to education for vulnerable populations is still extremely important.
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