Leon howard sullivan biography of donald

When the Rev. Leon Howard Sullivan was born in 1922 in Charleston, W.Va., the city was not prepared for the impact he would make not only on the state but the world when it came to corporate equality.

According to State’s website, Sullivan’s heart for equality started when he was a child. He was denied the right to have a soda and sit at the counter of a drugstore on Charleston’s Capitol Street. 

Sullivan attended State on a basketball scholarship, but his career was cut short because of an injury. He went on to work at a steel mill to pay for his schooling. 

After State, he received theological training at Union Theological Seminary and Columbia University. He went on in 1950 to begin a 38-year ministry at Zion Baptist Church in Philadelphia. Increasing the congregation from 600 to 6,000, Sullivan became known as the “Lion of Zion,” according to State’s website.

In 1958, Sullivan started what would lead to his effort in promoting global corporate equality. He came up with the idea “don’t buy where you don’t work” after asking companies in the Philadelphia area to interview young African-Americans for job openings. Only two companies worked with him.  

The idea of his movement was that if a company would refuse to hire African-Americans, local residents would boycott the company. After four years, it was estimated that thousands of African-Americans found jobs as the result of his efforts, according to the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.

In 1971, Sullivan was appointed to the board of directors of General Motors, becoming the first African-American to serve on the board. In 1977, he initiated the Sullivan Principles. Adopted from the code of conduct he developed for GM, the principles specified conduct for companies operating in South Africa. 

Because of the principles, the United States in 1999 adopted the “Global Sullivan Principles” as the international corporate code of conduct. According to the Human Rights Library at

Leon Sullivan, an African-American Baptist minister, author and civil rights leader, was born in Charleston, West Virginia, in 1922.  The seeds of Sullivan’s activism were planted as a child when he was denied the right to have a soda and sit at a counter in a drug store on Charleston’s Capitol Street. It was then that he decided he would stand up for what he believed in and the people he believed in.

He graduated from the former Garnet High School and went on to attend West Virginia State University on a basketball scholarship, although his playing career was cut short due to an injury. He was able to finish his education by working at a steel mill to pay for it.

In 1943 Sullivan moved to New York and attended Union Theological Seminar from 1943-1945 and Columbia University where he received his master’s in Religion in 1947. While in New York he met his wife, Grace, and they later had three children Julie, Hope and Howard.

While in New York with the support of then Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia he was able to recruit 100 African-American men for the Harlem police force.

His biggest accomplishments began a few years later when he began to pastor the Zion Baptist Church in Philadelphia. He served as pastor there for 38 years and became known as “the Lion of Zion.” Church attendance rose during that time period from 600 to 6,000 members and became one of the largest churches America.

In 1958 he organized what became known as “selective patronage” after he asked companies in the Philadelphia area to interview young African-Americans for job openings and only two companies complied. The selective patronage slogan was “Don’t buy where you don’t work.” If a company refused to employ African-Americans then they boycotted the company. Within four years it was estimated that selective patronage resulted in the creation of jobs for thousands of African-Americans.

After the success of selective patronage, Sullivan realized what African-Americans needed most was a way

The Rev. Leon Howard Sullivan, one of the first African Americans to sit on the board of a major American corporation and the author of what came to be known as the Sullivan Principles, a code of conduct for American businesses in dealing with the apartheid government of South Africa, died Tuesday night of leukemia. He was 78.

In ill health for some time, Sullivan died in a Scottsdale hospital. He moved to Arizona from Philadelphia in the early 1980s and created the International Foundation for Education and Self-Help.

Sullivan combined the black economic nationalism of A. Philip Randolph, the political acumen of Adam Clayton Powell Jr. and the diasporic dreams of W.E.B. DuBois. His life’s work was a series of unconventional partnerships: between African Americans and Africans, corporate boards and liberation movements, and secular economic development and his ministry.

“He was really was a father figure in this whole movement for economic and social equality and justice,” said Kweisi Mfume, president of the NAACP.

A civil rights warrior who fought for conscientious capitalism, Sullivan preached the message “we help ourselves” in hardscrabble African American communities. And while calling on individuals to work hard, Sullivan urged corporate America to diversify the work force.

Sullivan pioneered mass boycotts and inspired later movements to do the same.

“He brought the idea of ministers leveraging consumer dollars for jobs and justice to Dr. Martin Luther King,” said Rainbow/PUSH Coalition President Jesse Jackson.

While sitting on the board of General Motors, Sullivan led the call for corporate divestment from South Africa’s apartheid regime. The set of principles he set forth during that effort would become one of the cornerstones of corporate social responsibility and, in 1999, the United Nations Global Compact, a commitment by the world business community to support human righ

Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient (1922–2001)

Leon Howard Sullivan (October 16, 1922 – April 24, 2001) was a Baptist minister, a civil rights leader and social activist focusing on the creation of job training opportunities for African Americans, a longtime General Motors Board Member, and an anti-Apartheid activist. Sullivan died of leukemia in a Scottsdale, Arizona hospital at the age of 78.

Early life

Born to Charles and Helen Sullivan in Charleston, West Virginia, he was raised in a small house on a dirt alley called Washington Court--one of Charleston's poorest communities. His parents divorced when he was three years old and he grew up an only child. At the age of twelve, he tried to purchase a Coca-Cola in a drugstore on Capitol Street. The proprietor refused to sell him the drink saying: "Stand on your feet, boy. You can't sit here." This incident inspired Sullivan's lifetime pursuit of fighting racial prejudice.

Sullivan also attributed much of his early influence to his grandmother:

... my grandmother Carrie, a constant and powerful presence in my life who taught me early on the importance of faith, determination, faith in God, and especially self-help.

As a teenager, Sullivan — who as an adult stood 6 ft 5 in tall — attended Garnet High School, a school for African Americans in Charleston, West Virginia. He received both a basketball and a football scholarship to West Virginia State College where, in 1940, he was initiated into the Tau chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity. A foot injury that ended his athletic career and scholarships forced Sullivan to pay for the remainder of his college by working in a steel mill.

Baptist Minister

Sullivan became a Baptist minister in West Virginia at the age of 18. In 1943, Adam Clayton Powell, a noted black minister, visited West Virginia and convinced Sullivan to move to New York City where the latter attended the Union T