4
Leon Sullivs
By MARY BETH NIBLEY
Associated Press Writer
PHILADELPHIA - Three letters
' -- 44TTT" -- stand for a
favorite motto of the Rev. Leon
Sullivan: 'Things take time."
He repeats the staccato letters
to anyone who is tired of how
long it takes to get things done,
and he has met a lot of them in a
lifetime of working with people
for whom many things are
elusive.
The letters convey a simple
idea he undoubtedly will keep in
mind over the next few months
Page B8-The Chronicle, Thursc
Sullivan, black activist and
civil rights advocate, is the
66-yearold pastor *of Zion Baptist
Church in Philadelphia who
in 1977 drafted a code of conduct
for American corporations doing
business in South Africa. The
principles were aimed at improving
the lot of non-white workers
in a country that practices racial
separation.
For a man like Sullivan, who
- has preached patience all his life,
the setting of deadlines is a difficult
matter. But a decade after
Ms ^cial-curisLience ^guidetiRescame
into being, he is urging
American companies to leave
South Africa unless that country
turns away from its apartheid
system by the end of May.
Many . companies, such as
Coca-Cola Co., General Motors
Corp., International Business
Machines Corp. and Eastman
Kodak Co., already have
departed or announced their intentions
to do so within the last
year.
Sullivan says the situation has
brought sleepless nights as he
agonizes over what will do the
most good ? or the least harm.
"I'm wrestling with how to
??deal with that.'* said Sullivam-htshead
tilted sideways as his hand
rubs his furrowed forehead.
Born Oct. 16, 1922, in
segregated Charleston, W.Va., to
a poor family, Leon Howard
Sullivan is a tall man with a
baritone voice at once gravelly
and smooth who easily commands
the attention of a listener.
Long before he stood his full
height of nearly 6V2 feet, he was
standing up for himself.
14At an early age, I saw the
evi^ of discrimination," he said.
In an interview, he talked of
some incidents in his youth that
focused his later life^
n^ffoheoccasion he recalled being
refused a hamburcer in a
"whites only" sandwich shop.
"So I recited the preamble to the
Constitution ... everybody stopped
what they were doing."
In a similar incident, he was infuriated
by a drugstore fountain
clerk who would not serve him a
soft drink and by the reaction of
white patrons.
"They said: 'Stand up, black
boy; you can't sit down here/ I
looked at the fiery eyes of the
man behind the counter, and I
decided I would stand up against
that kind of condition for the rest
of my life."
He thanks an inspirational
w?ont?
.^MEMOI
AND
PIEDMONT MEMORIAL
Martin Luther King Ma
HI
MRS. LENA RICHMOND
Fairfiiy Seryica Coordinator
r
, \
" N
lay, January 29, 1987
in: Time is rn
grandmother for bequeathing
him a sense of right and wrong -and
considerable gumption.
Higher-profile figures also
shaped his early adulthood, some
of them prime forces in the black
civil rights movement of the postDepression
era.
Adam Clayton Powell Jr., one
of the country's best-known
black leaders, and A. Phillip
Randolph, who organized the
1940s March on Washington
Movement that led President
Franklin Roosevelt to start the
Commission on Fair Employment
Practices, were just two of
the people who had significant.influence
on him.
1 Sullivam wrote poetry about
religion and racfcnrel^uons. At 17,
he went to a West Virginia college
on an athletic scholarship and
later became a Baptist minister. .
During the early years of his
ministry, he went to New York at
Powell's request and worked with
adolescents in Harlem in an effort
to curb juvenile delinquency.
He continued his studies at Union
Theological Seminary and Columbia
University.
He met the woman who wouid ~
become his wife; Grace, in 1945
and together they left New York
City. Grace has been "my
greatest critic and my greatest
support," Sullivan said. They
have three grown children and
one grandson.
Eventually, in 1950, he took
over at Zion Baptist Church. "It
became a very important force in
the city for some of the changes
that have taken place," he said.
The changes mainly come
under the broad category of
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UAL GARDE
VtAUSOLEUl
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usoleum The
mau
exte
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By a
CHARLES A. LEAK, SR.
Licensed Pre-Need Counselor .
K
t
rv,
inning out
economic development. One
thing for which Sullivan is
remembered is the citywide
boycotts in the late 1950s and early
'60s against businesses that
shut their doors to blacks.
4The boycotts were tremen
* * ? "
uuuaiy auwwcssiui, saia sum van.
But, once the doors were opened,
441 found that blacks did not havp
the skills for the jobs. Integration
was nof preparation, it was
frustration."
These observations led to the
creation in 1964 of the Opportunities
Industrialization Centers
and other sglf-help educational
programs for?)8b training and
fostering entrepreneurial activities
through the pooling of
community resources.
The Rev. Martin Luther King
*Jr. tapped Sullivan's know-how
in the formation of Operation
Breadbasket in Atlanta.
Sullivan points proudly to
Philadelnhin'c Pmor?c
wr m t 1 VJ J A IIILO)
the largest shopping center built,
owned and operated by blacks in
the United States. The shopping
center and community outreach
programs came about thanks
largely tu elTuiis by members of?
Zion and other area churches.
Not content to confine his
sights to the lower rungs of the
business ladder, Sullivan sought
to persuade companies to put
blacks in management roles. He
wound up with an invitation to
join General Motors* board of
directors, and he has served on it
since 1971.
He views the GM directorship
pragmatically, saying that in his
opinion, he was put on the board
Please see page B10
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