[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 65 (Monday, April 23, 2007)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4861-S4863]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




COMMEMORATING THE LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT OF THE REVEREND LEON H. SULLIVAN

  Mr. BINGAMAN. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the 
Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of S. Res. 166, submitted 
earlier today.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report the resolution by title.
  The legislative clerk read as follows:

       A resolution (S. Res. 166) commemorating the lifetime 
     achievement of the Reverend Leon H. Sullivan.

  There being no objection, the Senate proceeded to consider the 
resolution.
  Mr. CASEY. Madam President, I rise today in support of a resolution 
honoring the lifetime achievement of the Reverend Leon H. Sullivan. My 
colleague from Pennsylvania, Senator

[[Page S4862]]

Specter, has joined me as an original cosponsor of this resolution.
  Tomorrow marks the 6-year anniversary of the passing of one of 
America's great leaders. He was a man who changed the face of the 
world, a man of faith who achieved his mission in life through concrete 
action as well as his preaching. His family, friends, and colleagues 
appropriately refer to him as a ``giant among men''--a colossal force 
who helped overcome some of the greatest challenges of the 20th 
century. So I am honored to stand here today to acknowledge the 
extraordinary lifetime achievements of the late Reverend Leon H. 
Sullivan.
  Originally from West Virginia, Leon Sullivan grew up during the Great 
Depression while racial segregation still ruled the United States. He 
recalled it as a time when all of the White children walked down the 
left side of the street and all of the Black children walked on the 
right side of the street. It was a time when skin color often dictated 
one's place in society. When Reverend Sullivan was an 8-year-old, he 
was reprimanded for sitting at a drugstore counter and drinking a soda. 
A burly White man yelled at the young Leon: ``Stand on your own two 
feet, you can't sit here.''
  When we think of Leon Sullivan today as a man, as a reverend, and as 
a leader, we think of his entire life, and his was a life of courage 
and compassion, a life of struggle and triumph, a life of faith and 
family--his own family and the human family--and, finally, his was a 
life for others and for God.
  When he was young and dealing with the kind of discrimination I just 
described, that kind of experience kindled a fire within his heart, and 
Leon Sullivan made the decision to commit his life to fighting 
segregation and injustice.
  Throughout his teenage years, he found inspiration in the founding 
documents of the United States. He understood that the principle of 
equality expressed in the Declaration of Independence and the 
Constitution transcends skin color. He repeatedly defied tradition and 
deliberately frequented restaurants, libraries, and shops where Blacks 
were not welcome, often reciting passages from the Declaration of 
Independence, fearlessly challenging racism and confronting prejudice 
where he found it.
  After graduating from high school, Leon Sullivan was awarded an 
athletic scholarship to West Virginia State College, where he played 
football and basketball and also enjoyed the Kappa Alpha Psi 
fraternity.
  After graduation, he was called to the ministry, a vocation that 
allowed him to address the religious needs of his people while 
continuing his fight against segregation and injustice. He moved first 
to Harlem, where he worked with the Reverend Adam Clayton Powell at the 
Abyssinian Baptist Church and attended Union Theological Seminary. He 
was offered a position in Philadelphia and soon emerged as a powerful 
source of inspiration as the pastor of the Zion Baptist Church, where 
he focused on the temporal as well as the spiritual well-being of his 
people.
  He once said:

       I felt that God did not just want people to have milk and 
     honey in heaven . . . He wanted them to have some ham and 
     eggs on earth. I believe that God just doesn't want you to go 
     to the pearly gates. He wants you to have a better life on 
     earth, and if you have a better life on earth and treat 
     people right, you'll get to the pearly gates.

  As part of his ministerial role, Reverend Sullivan spoke eloquently 
about social justice, calling on people to ``help the little man and 
aid those who cannot survive on their own.'' For over a decade, he 
helped and counseled hundreds of parishioners and others, but his 
realization that racial segregation would prevent his vision from 
becoming a reality led him to join the civil rights moment. He was one 
of the first civil rights leaders to recognize how the economic power 
of his people could be harnessed to promote the cause of racial 
equality. He created the Selective Patronage Movement, through which 
400 Black ministers in Philadelphia mobilized their parishioners to 
boycott businesses which practiced discrimination. Exercising economic 
power through the Selective Patronage Movement led to the opening of 
thousands of jobs in previously segregated companies in Philadelphia 
alone.
  These victories inspired Sullivan to create the Opportunities 
Industrial Utilization Center of America, the so-called OIC, which 
provided and still provides today comprehensive training so that 
motivated workers can be prepared to take advantage of opportunities 
opening up to them. As he said, ``Integration without preparation 
brings frustration.'' Originally based in Philadelphia, the OIC 
captured the attention of President Lyndon Johnson, who worked directly 
with Reverend Sullivan to improve the infrastructure and efficiency of 
the organization and ultimately bring it to the national stage. Today, 
OIC America has chapters in 30 States and has helped thousands of 
African Americans achieve success through its emphasis on self-reliance 
and self-improvement.
  The nationally recognized success of OIC led the chairman of General 
Motors to approach Reverend Sullivan about serving on the GM board of 
directors. The Reverend accepted the offer and served for over 20 years 
as the first African American on the GM board.
  His service to GM brought him face to face again with racism, this 
time in the international arena. Reverend Sullivan traveled to South 
Africa, where he was targeted as a troublesome visitor because of his 
meetings with anti- apartheid organizers. As he was leaving the 
country, he was stopped at the airport and strip-searched. Reverend 
Sullivan, the pastor of one of the largest churches in the United 
States, a director of General Motors, stood there in his underwear and 
asked the White officials in charge why this was happening.
  The official said, ``I am doing to you what I have to do.''
  Reverend Sullivan replied: ``When I get back, I am going to do to you 
what I have to do.''
  What Leon Sullivan did was bring the economic power of corporate 
America on the heads of those who supported apartheid in South Africa. 
Under what came to be known as the Sullivan Principles, hundreds of 
multinational corporations publicly opposed racism and discrimination 
in South Africa. When the statement of principle failed to change the 
status quo fast enough, Reverend Sullivan raised the stakes. In his 
words: ``I threatened South Africa and said in 2 years Mandela must be 
freed, apartheid must end and blacks must vote or else I will bring 
every American company I can out of South Africa . . . ''
  His efforts eventually evolved into a full campaign of disinvestment 
by hundreds of companies and by institutional investors holding 
hundreds of billions of dollars in corporate stock. And it worked. 
Apartheid collapsed, and Nelson Mandela went from prisoner to head of 
state.
  Reverend Sullivan's work continued long after the end of apartheid. 
In 1999, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan invited him to deliver a 
speech at the United Nations, expanding his moral code of corporate 
social responsibility into the internally accepted Global Sullivan 
Principles.
  Beyond this, he led a campaign to rescue African children from the 
overall lack of schools, infrastructure, hospitals and security.
  Reverend Sullivan said of children:

       Children do not get here on their own . . . They didn't ask 
     to be here . . . They didn't ask who their mothers or fathers 
     would be or the situations in which they were born. So what 
     society has to do is reach and get the most out of that child 
     you can . . .

  What I and so many others admired most about the Reverend Leon 
Sullivan was his compassion for those truly in need. He called those of 
us who are able to stand on our own feet and improve ourselves, while 
always protecting the helpless.

  Now I stand in this Chamber, on the floor of the Senate, to honor the 
energy and compassion of this great man dedicated to his noble causes. 
I have only touched on a few of the many contributions to our Nation 
and our world. These examples illustrate his unique ability to fight 
discrimination and injustice across the globe. From childhood until his 
death, Leon Sullivan believed in the future and demonstrated a 
relentless optimism regardless of the obstacles that tried to prohibit 
success. He characterized his life's work by saying:

       I would not be doing what I am doing if I weren't 
     optimistic about it. I'm reaching

[[Page S4863]]

     into a barrel and taking out a little hand at a time, not a 
     whole lot . . . but if enough hands go down in the next 
     fifty, seventy-five, hundred years, we'll clean out that 
     barrel.

  As we know, when so many of us pass on, most good people do, in fact, 
leave a legacy of family and close friends. Reverend Sullivan certainly 
did that. With us today is his family, represented by his daughter Hope 
and his friends and colleagues, many who worked with him for decades. 
But Leon Sullivan left a legacy far beyond family and friends. The Zion 
Baptist Church remains a bastion of faith and good works in north 
Philadelphia. OIC of America and OIC International continue to prepare 
thousands for productive, well-paying jobs. The International 
Foundation for Education and Self-Help trains students for careers 
ranging from teaching to banking. The Sullivan Charitable Trust and 
Progress Investment Associates carries on his economic and real estate 
development initiatives. The Leon Sullivan Foundation presents its 
biannual summit meeting in Africa, encouraging cooperation between 
African Americans and countries and leaders throughout the continent of 
Africa. The Global Sullivan Principles serve as a beacon for corporate 
social responsibility and human rights throughout the world. South 
Africa, the nation that Reverend Sullivan helped free from apartheid, 
still struggles, yet stands as a shining example of what people 
speaking truth and wielding moral force can do in our world.
  For all this and so much more that remains unsaid today, we honor the 
Rev. Leon Sullivan--today and always.
  Mr. BINGAMAN. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the 
resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, the motions to 
reconsider be laid upon the table, and that any statements relating 
thereto be printed in the Record.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The resolution (S. Res. 166) was agreed to.
  The preamble was agreed to.
  The resolution, with its preamble, reads as follows:

                              S. Res. 166

       Whereas, the late Reverend Leon H. Sullivan dedicated his 
     life to alleviating the plight of the poor and the 
     disadvantaged in America and worldwide;
       Whereas, Reverend Sullivan received numerous honors and 
     awards during his lifetime, including recognition by LIFE 
     magazine in 1963 as one of the 100 outstanding young adults 
     in America, the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1992, and 
     the Eleanor Roosevelt Award for Human Rights in 1999;
       Whereas, having dedicated 37 years of his ministerial 
     vocation to the historic Zion Baptist Church of Philadelphia, 
     Reverend Sullivan's leadership and innovation led to the 
     creation of one of the largest congregations in the Nation 
     during his time;
       Whereas, in 1966, as part of his 10-36 Plan to encourage 
     individuals to invest in the economic future of their 
     communities, Reverend Sullivan founded the Leon H. Sullivan 
     Charitable Trusts and the Progress Investment Associates, 
     through which numerous economic development and social 
     services programs have been developed and funded;
       Whereas, in 1963, in response to a lack of job 
     opportunities in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Reverend 
     Sullivan led more than 400 ministers in a successful boycott 
     that opened up more than 4,000 jobs for African-Americans;
       Whereas, Reverend Sullivan met the need for job training by 
     establishing the Opportunities Industrialization Center, 
     which has grown to more than 75 training centers throughout 
     the Nation;
       Whereas, recognizing the need to take his struggle to 
     alleviate the plight of the poor abroad, in 1969 Reverend 
     Sullivan established Opportunities Industrialization Centers 
     International, which has grown to more than 40 centers in 16 
     African nations, Poland, and the Philippines;
       Whereas, when Reverend Sullivan saw the need to create a 
     broader array of programs in Africa, he established the 
     International Foundation for Education and Self-Help, which 
     has conducted numerous initiatives, including Schools for 
     Africa, fellowship programs, and innovative teacher and 
     banker training programs since 1988;
       Whereas, in 2001, the Leon H. Sullivan Foundation was 
     established posthumously to support Reverend Sullivan's 
     life's mission through the work of his many established 
     organizations;
       Whereas, the Leon H. Sullivan Foundation presents the 
     biennial Leon H. Sullivan Summits in Africa, which have 
     provided a forum for leaders of African nations together with 
     more than 18,000 African-Americans and Friends of Africa to 
     interact with their counterparts and produce programs to meet 
     the needs of the poor and disadvantaged in African nations;
       Whereas, in 1977, Reverend Sullivan helped to promulgate 
     the Sullivan Principles, a code of conduct for human rights 
     and equal opportunity for companies operating in South 
     Africa, and the Sullivan Principles helped end apartheid in 
     South Africa;
       Whereas, Reverend Sullivan expanded on the Sullivan 
     Principles in 1999, by creating the Global Sullivan 
     Principles, which encourage corporate social responsibility 
     and promote global human rights and political, economic, and 
     social justice;
       Whereas, more than 250 governments, corporations, and 
     universities on 5 continents have endorsed the Global 
     Sullivan Principles since their initiation;
       Whereas, 10 African heads of state endorsed the Global 
     Sullivan Principles at the Leon H. Sullivan Summit in Abuja, 
     Nigeria, in July 2006;
       Whereas, plans for the 8th Leon H. Sullivan Summit in 
     Tanzania in 2008 include broader regional endorsement of the 
     Global Sullivan Principles among African nations: Now, 
     therefore, be it
       Resolved, That the Senate--
       (1) commemorates the life of the Reverend Leon H. Sullivan;
       (2) salutes the positive impact of the Reverend Sullivan's 
     achievements domestically and internationally; and
       (3) encourages the continued pursuit of Reverend Sullivan's 
     mission to help the poor and disenfranchised around the 
     world.

                          ____________________