Moving Mountains; The Principles and Purposes of Leon Sullivan

Valley Forge: Judson Press, 1998. First Printing [Stated]. Hardcover. Good/Very good. xviii, 300, [2] pages. Depression length of spine. Appendix. Index. Leon Howard Sullivan (October 16, 1922 - April 24, 2001) was a Baptist minister, a civil rights leader and social activist focusing on the creation of job training opportunities for African Americans, a longtime General Motors Board Member, and an anti-Apartheid activist. Sullivan's work was built on the principle of "self-help", which provides people with the tools to help themselves overcome barriers of poverty and oppression. African Americans had been excluded from the types of training which led to better paying jobs. Sullivan realized that simply making jobs available was not enough. He said, "I found that we needed training. Integration without preparation is frustration." In 1964, Sullivan founded Opportunities Industrialization Centers (OIC) of America. The program took individuals with little hope and few prospects and offered them job training and instruction in life skills and then helped place them into jobs. The movement quickly spread around the nation. With sixty affiliated programs in thirty states and the District of Columbia, OIC has grown into a movement, which has served over two million disadvantaged and under-skilled people. The basis for the enthusiastically received Public Television documentary "A Principled Man", this book tells the story of Leon Sullivan, a man who rose to national prominence as the first African-African member of the Board of Directors at General Motors Corporation and whose "Sullivan Principles" played a key role in the downfall of apartheid.