“Stand on your feet, black boy—stand up,” screamed the enraged soda-fountain owner. It was around 1930 and the eight-year-old Leon H. Sullivan was told that he had no right—as an African American—to sit down and order a Coke at a neighborhood shop in his hometown of Charleston, W.Va. It was a pivotal point in the life of a man who would go on to mentor Martin Luther King, help free Nelson Mandela and play a significant role in ending apartheid in South Africa. It was the beginning of Rev. Leon Sullivan’s life-long mission to fight discrimination—a life that included creating the Opportunities Industrialization Center (OIC), job training programs that have trained about 1.5 million people in 142 centers worldwide.
As part of Black History Month, the Huntington Museum of Art (HMOA) will show “A Principled Man: Rev. Leon Sullivan,” the documentary that aired nationally on PBS and that was produced by MotionMasters. Our CEO, Diana Sole Walko, served as executive producer for the film and became a close friend of the film’s subject. Her five trips to Africa to work with Rev. Sullivan and his foundation will provide keen insight into the man, his work, and his journey in developing the Global Sullivan Principles—a code of conduct for human rights and equal opportunity.
Join her for an introduction to the film and a Q&A after the showing on Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2009, beginning at 7 pm at the Huntington Museum of Art in Huntington, W.Va.
“Help us to work to make, not only our companies, but our nation and our world, better for all God’s people.” – Rev. Leon Sullivan, 1922-2001.
Learn more about the life of this remarkable man at the Rev. Leon Sullivan Web site
Read the story of the rise of a poor Baptist preacher from Charleston, W. Va. to the first African-American member of General Motors’ board of directors in Moving Mountains: The Principles and Purposes of Leon Sullivan –Available at Amazon.com