[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 5]
[House]
[Page 6618]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                      HONORING REV. LEON SULLIVAN

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from California (Ms. Lee) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. LEE of California. Mr. Speaker, today one of the greatest civil 
rights and human rights leaders of our time, a great orator, a humble 
minister who lived his faith, Reverend Leon Sullivan, was laid to rest 
in Phoenix, Arizona.
  Rev. Leon Sullivan was an advocate for the ``least of these.'' His 
deep and abiding commitment to human rights, to economic development, 
to education, to the elimination of racism and apartheid transcended 
the North American continent all of the way to the continent of Africa 
and the entire world. His love for all of God's children was the 
driving force for many of his magnificent endeavors here in America and 
in Africa.
  Mr. Speaker, I include for the Record Reverend Sullivan's obituary 
which sets forth his life's work.

         [From the International Herald Tribune, Apr. 27, 2000]

       Leon Sullivan, 78, Key Player In Ending Apartheid, Is Dead

                            (By Paul Lewis)

       The Reverend Leon Sullivan, 78, the clergyman and civil 
     rights leader who drew up guidelines for American businesses 
     operating in South Africa under apartheid, died Wednesday of 
     leukemia in Scottsdale, Arizona.
       In 1977, Mr. Sullivan drafted the Sullivan Principles to 
     help persuade American companies with investments in South 
     Africa to treat their workers there in the same manner that 
     they treated their U.S. workers.
       He later worked with the United Nations on a code of 
     ethical conduct for multinational corporations.
       As originally stated, the Sullivan Principles called for 
     racial nonsegregation on the factory floor and in company 
     eating and washing facilities; fair employment practices; 
     equal pay for equal work; training for blacks and other 
     nonwhites so they could advance to better jobs; promotion of 
     more blacks and other nonwhites to supervisory positions, and 
     improved housing, schooling, recreation and health facilities 
     for workers. On Wednesday, the UN secretary-general, Kofi 
     Annan, praised Mr. Sullivan, saying that he had played a bold 
     and innovative role in ending apartheid. And the Reverend 
     Jesse Jackson called Mr. Sullivan ``a tremendous source of 
     hope and vitality and moral authority.''
       In 1971, Mr. Sullivan joined the board of General Motors as 
     the company's first black director. He was instrumental in 
     expanding black employment and creating more black 
     dealerships.
       By 1984, Mr. Sullivan had used his position on the General 
     Motors board to persuade most American companies doing 
     business in South Africa to abide by his principles. He then 
     added several more guidelines.
       He said that American companies should campaign actively 
     against apartheid, allow black workers full job mobility and 
     provide housing accommodations close to work.
       In 1987, with apartheid still in place and such African 
     leaders as Nelson Mandela still in prison, Mr. Sullivan 
     toughened his approach, urging American corporations to 
     withdraw altogether from South Africa and calling for the 
     United States to impose trade and investment sanctions on 
     that country.
       This harsher stance, however, won little support from 
     either the Reagan administration or American business 
     leaders.
       When apartheid was dismantled in the 1990s, many credited 
     Mr. Sullivan's work as a major force in the change. But he 
     said only, ``If you take a hammer and chisel and pound a rock 
     100 times, it's going to crack. I pounded and pounded and it 
     cracked.''
       In 1988, Mr. Sullivan retired as the head of Zion Baptist 
     Church in Philadelphia, moved to Phoenix and began building 
     bridges between Africa and black America, organizing a series 
     of African and African-American summit meetings, with the 
     first held in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, in 1991.
       In 1999, he promulgated his own Global Sullivan Principles, 
     ethical guidelines for multinational corporations. About a 
     hundreds U.S. corporations have accepted them.
       He was awarded honorary degrees by Dartmouth, Princeton and 
     Swarthmore, among dozens of other colleges.
                                  ____


                        A Fighter Against Racism

       A Baptist minister from humble beginnings in Charleston, W. 
     Va., Leon Sullivan became a force for racial justice from the 
     streets of Philadelphia to Soweto. The Rev. Mr. Sullivan died 
     last week of leukemia at the age of 78. He will be buried 
     today in Phoenix.
       The Rev. Mr. Sullivan wrote an international code of 
     business conduct that helped fight apartheid. For more than 
     20 years, he crusaded against institutionalized racial 
     oppression, backed by the white South African government. His 
     ``Sullivan Principles,'' written in 1977, called on U.S. 
     firms conducting business in South Africa to establish fair-
     employment practices, train non-whites and promote them to 
     management jobs, and to improve employees' lives outside of 
     the work environment. He used his position as the first 
     African-American to sit on the board of directors of General 
     Motors Corp. to focus attention on racial segregation and 
     deplorable living conditions of black workers in South 
     Africa.
       Before he moved into the international arena, the Rev. Mr. 
     Sullivan fought for racial equality in Philadelphia, where he 
     organized a boycott of local firms that would not hire 
     African-Americans. Not one to accept the common corporate 
     excuse that no qualified African-Americans could be found for 
     available jobs, he established the Opportunities 
     Industrialization Centers that since 1965 have trained 
     hundreds of thousands of people in the United States and 
     Africa. There are 56 affiliate centers in 36 states (none in 
     Missouri or Illinois) providing education, training, 
     employment and housing services to poor people of all races.
       As the United states continues to push for global trade, 
     the Rev. Mr. Sullivan's principles promoting equal economic 
     opportunity for all races are every bit as relevant as they 
     were in 1977.

  Mr. Speaker, I will miss Reverend Sullivan tremendously. I will miss 
his words of wisdom and counsel. My last conversation with Reverend 
Sullivan was on the front steps of the Cannon Building last year. We 
talked about the HIV/AIDS pandemic which is ravaging Africa.

                              {time}  1900

  He told me that he intended for the African American Summit, which 
had been scheduled to take place in Abuja, Nigeria this month, to 
highlight the devastation brought on by this disease. He said that we 
must stay faithful to our mission to eradicate this disease from the 
face of the earth. Reverend Sullivan's untimely death prevents, for the 
moment only, this summit from proceeding, but his message of hope must 
be heard.
  Tonight we can all honor his legacy. Tonight we can and we must 
recommit ourselves to increasing the level of funding to address the 
global HIV/AIDS pandemic, specifically in sub-Saharan Africa which has 
over 70 percent of the world's HIV/AIDS infections.
  Finally, in honor of Reverend Sullivan, let us remember his 
magnificent life; and let us remember that it was he who helped 
mobilize us, making us take note that Africa does matter. It was he who 
helped remind us that America is home to tens of millions of African 
descendants. We cannot forget that Africa matters.
  It is with a heavy heart, yet a sense of gratitude, that I remember 
Reverend Sullivan tonight. My prayers go out to Reverend Sullivan's 
family. May this great warrior rest in peace.

                          ____________________