[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 77 (Wednesday, June 6, 2001)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5884-S5885]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         ADDITIONAL STATEMENTS

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          IN MEMORIAM OF REVEREND DOCTOR LEON HOWARD SULLIVAN

 Mr. SANTORUM. Mr. President, on Sunday, June 30, 2001, family, 
friends, colleagues, and former parishioners will gather to memorialize 
Reverend Doctor Leon Howard Sullivan--to celebrate his life, and 
recognize his accomplishments as one the most outstanding and effective 
civil and human rights leaders born in the 20th century. I rise today 
to lend my thoughts and reflections as I was privileged to know Rev. 
Sullivan, and to have worked with him on initiatives important to 
Philadelphia, as well on African trade and development issues.
  Reverend Sullivan was born into poverty in an unpaved alley in an 
unpainted clapboard house in Charleston, WV on October 16, 1922. From 
such humble beginnings began a life's journey that was to last seventy-
eight years.
  Sullivan was born in a State that practiced ``Jim Crow Laws,'' and 
while still in grade school, he started in his own way to fight against 
racial discrimination. By the time he was in the tenth grade, he had 
sat-in and been told to leave every drug store and eatery where ``only 
whites'' were allowed to sit in the city of Charleston, WV. At the age 
of sixteen, he won a basketball and football scholarship to West 
Virginia State College.
  Sullivan graduated from West Virginia State College at the age of 
twenty, and at the invitation of the Rev. Adam Clayton Powell, traveled 
to New York City. He was successful in winning a scholarship to the 
Union Theological Seminary. Rev. Powell also helped him secure his 
first job as a coin collector for the Bell Telephone Company. Leon H. 
Sullivan became the first African-American in the United States to hold 
that position.
  In 1941, at the age of twenty-one, Sullivan was elected President of 
the March on Washington organized by A. Phillip Randolph, President of 
the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters,

[[Page S5885]]

the first African-American recognized and controlled union in America. 
A few days before the march was scheduled to take place, President 
Roosevelt acted on the demands of the march organizers to end 
discrimination against African-Americans on Army and Navy industrial 
installations. From the first march on Washington that never took place 
came Executive Order 8802. This action ended discrimination against 
African-American workers in government ordnance plants.
  Sullivan's career path continued when he accepted the position of 
assistant pastor to Rev. Powell. It was here that he learned first-hand 
about church administration and the art of running a political 
campaign. During this time, Rev. Powell campaigned for and won his seat 
in the U.S. Congress. It was also during this period of time that 
Sullivan met his life partner, Grace Banks.
  In 1944, in Philadelphia, PA, Leon and Grace were married. Not long 
after marrying, Leon Sullivan was called to lead The First Baptist 
Church of South Orange, NJ. While serving as pastor, he started a 
number of outreach ministries and continued his education at Union 
Theological Seminary and Columbia University.
  In 1950, Sullivan was called to be the pastor of the Zion Baptist 
Church of Philadelphia, where he would serve as pastor for the next 
thirty-eight years. The church membership grew from 600 to 6,000 and 
many outreach ministries were born. It was during his pastorship of 
Zion Baptist Church that Rev. Sullivan became locally, nationally and 
internationally known for his civil rights and human rights activities. 
One of these outreach programs was the Citizens Committee that worked 
with the police in the community to actively reduce crime.
  In 1955, Rev. Sullivan was chosen as one of the Ten Most Outstanding 
Men in America and presented the award by Vice President Richard M. 
Nixon. His achievements would also be recognized by Presidents George 
Bush in 1992 and Bill Clinton in 1999 when he received the Presidential 
Medal of Freedom and the Eleanor Roosevelt Award respectively.
  Rev. Sullivan founded the Youth Employment Service, and in 1957, it 
was cited by the Freedom Foundation as the most effective, privately-
developed employment program in the nation.
  A year later, Rev. Sullivan would undertake a great challenge that 
confronted African-Americans in the city of Philadelphia and across the 
Nation. Encouraged by his wife, Rev. Sullivan set out to bolster 
employment opportunities for African-American Philadelphians. This 
effort would prove to be a turning point in the civil rights movement 
for the Nation. With the assistance of 400 ministers in Philadelphia, 
Rev. Sullivan began the movement called ``Selective Patronage.'' The 
movement had one message, ``if the company won't hire blacks, don't buy 
their products.'' That movement became very successful in Philadelphia 
and led to the employment of thousands of African-Americans who were 
previously unwelcome as employees.
  In 1962, at the request of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Rev. Sullivan 
traveled to Atlanta to explain to King and the black ministers working 
with him, about Selective Patronage and how it worked. A few months 
later a similar program was started by Dr. King.
  Rev. Sullivan went on to make one of his greatest contributions by 
creating the Opportunities Industrialization Center, OIC. This job 
training and retraining program, initially started in Philadelphia, 
expanded operations to more than 100 cities throughout the United 
States and in 19 countries. OIC job training programs have enabled 
thousands of people to acquire the tools needed to secure skilled jobs 
with good wages. The OICs of America, in conjunction with OIC 
International, have trained more than 2 million men and women.
  Further building on Rev. Sullivan's philosophy of self-help and 
empowerment, he founded the International Foundation for Education and 
Self Help, IFESH, in 1983. IFESH is a non-governmental, non-profit 
organization with a mission of reducing poverty, promoting literacy, 
providing skilled job training, and providing basic and preventive 
health care. Specifically, IFESH designed programs to train 100,000 
skilled workers; prepare 100,000 people for the farming profession; and 
help five million people achieve literacy. IFESH programs are 
international in scope with a strong emphasis on fostering social, 
cultural and economic relations between Africans and Americans.
  Rev. Sullivan's vision of and dedication to empowerment, equality and 
fairness touched many lives throughout the world. One of his celebrated 
accomplishments is the establishment of a code of conduct for companies 
operating in South Africa. These principles, known as the Sullivan 
Principles, are the standard for social responsibility and equal 
opportunity, and are recognized to be one of the most effective efforts 
to end workplace discrimination in South Africa.
  Rev. Sullivan built a bridge between America and Africa by organizing 
the five African/African-American Summits that were held in Africa. The 
first summit was in the Cote d'Ivoire and drew 2,000 people and the 
last was in Accra, Ghana with 4,200 people attending from throughout 
the United States and Africa. The last summit included 12 African heads 
of state, five vice presidents and prime ministers, and 14 delegations 
led by ministers of state. From the business community, more than 300 
American businesses were represented.
  The life's work of Rev. Leon Sullivan charted a course and paved the 
way for hope, opportunity, and fulfillment for many African-Americans 
in Philadelphia, across the Nation, and throughout the world. In 
memorializing Rev. Sullivan, we celebrate his monumental contributions 
and achievements as a civil rights leader and a human rights 
advocate.

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