The Ripple Effect: Take Action, Inspire Change

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The Leon H. Sullivan Foundation proudly commemorates yesterday as Nelson Mandela Day, a day that recognizes a man who worked with Reverend Sullivan for many years and who shares the view that it takes a collective effort to create change. Their relationship began when Sullivan became the first black member on the board of a major corporation—the Board of Directors at General Motors in 1971. At the time, General Motors was the largest employer of blacks in South Africa and the Board of Directors made a trip to South Africa to see operations at their plants. Experiencing the many racist and unfair policies created by the apartheid government for blacks, in addition to facing the humiliation of being strip searched at the airport, based solely on his skin color, Sullivan decided to dedicate his life to improving those conditions. The Sunday after returning from South Africa, in a sermon entitled “The Walls Must Come Down,” Reverend Sullivan asked members of his congregation to take out a piece of paper and write down the date of the sermon: June 29, 1975. Then he said to them, “Write this: ‘In fifteen years, apartheid in South Africa will be no more.’”

He used his position at GM to garner global support and economic pressure from individuals and leaders in companies and governments. Reverend Sullivan stated,
“I arrived back in Philadelphia and immediately began preparing for a new kind of struggle. It revolved around a plan – proposed by South Africans themselves – to use the collective power of coercion by both morally and economically prodding corporations (beginning with U.S. companies) to change the laws of the South African government. It was something that had never been tried before. The seed had been planted to transform U.S. companies into a battering ram against the walls of apartheid until the walls came tumbling down.”

On April 1, 1977, Sullivan held a large press conference in Washington, DC with Thomas Murphy of General Motors, Frank Cary of IBM, and Bill Travalerious of Mobile to announce their joint effort to support the Principles of Equal Rights, later known by the world as the Global Sullivan Principles. General Motors was the first company to adopt the Sullivan Principles, the other signatory companies were, Ford, 3M, IBM, Mobile, Citibank, Caltex, Union Carbide, Otis Elevator, Burroughs, American Cyanamind, and International Harvester.

From there, many more companies around the world signed onto the Sullivan Principles—beginning corporate social responsibility in America and the world—which called for the support of universal human rights, particularly for the employees and communities in which they operate. The Sullivan Principles specifically included racial desegregation 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 improving the quality of employees’ lives outside of the work environment in such areas as housing, schooling, recreation and health facilities for workers. To also promote these Principles being used by those with whom the companies did business, Sullivan stated, “The principles were not merely words written on a piece of paper. They represent goals and commitments to action.”

After two years, every Sullivan signatory company in America had ended their discriminatory policies against black workers in company facilities in South Africa, despite the fact that those policies were actually against the laws of the South African government.

For the ten years the Sullivan Principles were active in South Africa, U.S. companies spent more than half a billion dollars on programs to improve the quality of life for blacks. Reverend Sullivan said that, perhaps most importantly, the Sullivan Principles created a platform on which blacks and others could speak out for freedom and equal rights within a country where those who opposed the system had previously been routinely exiled, banned, jailed, tortured, or killed.

On May 7, 1985 in an editorial published in the Philadelphia Inquirer Reverend Sullivan announced a two-year deadline for the South African government to end statutory apartheid, to release Nelson Mandela, and to give black Africans the right to vote on an equal basis with whites. The deadline was not met, and Reverend Sullivan made a publicly televised appeal on networks around the US and in South Africa for companies operating in South Africa to withdraw. Six months after the announcement, forty US companies announced that they were leaving South Africa. Within ten months, that number grew to 70, including General Motors, IBM, and Mobile, all of which were among South African’s leading U.S. companies at the time.

Within twelve months of the announcement, South Africa lost $1Billion in company investments. Within two years after the announcement statutory apartheid had ended, and a year later, Nelson Mandela was freed from prison.

Three years after the announcement, blacks had the full right to vote, and four years after the announcement, Nelson Mandela was president of a democratic, free South Africa. The walls of apartheid had come down. It took fifteen years – almost to the month – after the first announcement by Reverend Sullivan in the Zion Baptist Church of Philadelphia.

Sullivan and Mandela then redirected their work to encourage companies to return to South Africa. Leon Sullivan used his corporate position to oppose apartheid and to create a movement toward change. Mandela recognized this, worked with Sullivan, and continued to empower the nation of South Africa through and beyond his presidency. It only takes one person to decide to create a ripple that will lead to a lasting change in the lives of others; this is the philosophy of Nelson Mandela Day and what his close friend Reverend Sullivan embodied through his years of service. Today and everyday, join the Leon H. Sullivan Foundation in honoring a true friend, visionary, and advocate for all Africans. When you see an opportunity, be proactive, work toward changing the lives of others, and watch the ripple effect of positive change take place.