The Lion of Zion: The legacy of Rev. Leon H. Sullivan

The human rights leader and founder of OIC would have turned 100 on Oct. 16

I owe my first job to Rev. Leon H. Sullivan, the human rights leader and founder of an international job training center and the nation’s first Black-owned shopping center.

When I was 15, I worked at the Opportunities Industrialization Center in Philadelphia. My job was to empty trash, mop floors and other maintenance duties. 

I couldn’t have been happier.

For the first time in my young life, I was able to earn my own money. I was proud to have a job. I was even more proud to see Black excellence at work. I saw young and old Black men and women, from janitors to executives working at OIC, an institution created by Black men and women.

OIC and its many satellite locations provided job training and jobs for thousands of Black Americans like me in Philadelphia, across the United States and beyond.

Many African American leaders once worked at OIC and received valuable professional training there including former Philadelphia mayor John F. Street and Robert W. Bogle, the President and CEO of the Philadelphia Tribune, the nation’s oldest newspaper owned and operated by African Americans.

The vision of one man helped to launch the careers of thousands.

Born in Charleston, West Virginia on Oct 16, 1922, Leon Howard Sullivan became a Baptist minister at age 18 and eventually moved to Philadelphia to become pastor of Zion Baptist Church in North Philadelphia in 1950. 

At that time, many preachers in poor communities were content with comforting their congregations with sermons focused only on life in the hereafter and neglected to address the material needs of their congregants. 

But Sullivan was not your average preacher. 

Standing six feet, five inches tall and possessing a deep booming voice, Sullivan was an imposing figure with a big vision. 

He used his pulpit to address the needs of his community by leading his church members to invest their money every month to create nonprofits that fostered several economic projects. 

In 1962, during a sermon, he proposed his vision of self-help to the community through investment. "One day I preached a sermon at Zion about Jesus feeding the five thousand with a few loaves and a few fish", said Sullivan. "Everybody put in their little bit and you had enough to feed everybody, and a whole lot left over. So, I said, that is what I am going to do with the church and the community.” He said, “I am going to ask 50 people to put $10 down for 36 months of loaves and fishes and see if we could accumulate enough resources to build something that we would own ourselves."

The 10-36 Plan created two legal entities. "For the first 16 months of the subscription period, investors would contribute to the Zion Non-Profit Charitable Trust (ZNPCT), a Community Development Corporation that would support education, scholarships for youth, health services and other programs aimed at social uplift. For the remaining 20 months of the subscription period, investors would make payments to a for-profit corporation. 

The 10-36 Plan was soon used to invest in numerous housing and economic development initiatives. 

In 1964, Sullivan founded and led the first Opportunities Industrialization Centers of America, Inc. (OIC) with the first school in an abandoned Philadelphia jail. 

The non-profit provided job and skills training and matched its graduates up with the employment needs of Philadelphia businesses and institutions. The undertaking was so successful it was replicated in cities across the United States. In 1969, OIC International was created to create employment-training services on a global scale.  

In 1968, four years after building OIC, Sullivan rallied his church members to build Progress Plaza, the first shopping center in America built, owned, and managed by African Americans. 

Sullivan built OIC and Progress Plaza in the volatile 1960s during the civil rights and Black power movements, a time of protest and civil unrest.

Congressman Dwight Evans, D-Philadelphia, recalled the importance of Progress Plaza during its 50th anniversary in 2018.

A young man at the time, Evans remembered Sullivan’s message of black entrepreneurship and economic control as an empowering mantra in a time of conflict and change.

“At that time people were talking about ‘burn, baby, burn,’” said Rep. Evans.  “He wrote a book called “Build, Brother, Build.” That was the fundamental difference. I tried to model myself after him when I got elected to the state legislature in 1980 and duplicate what he did with Progress Plaza.”

In response to the growing anger and despair at the time that erupted in protests and riots across the country, Sullivan gave Black Americans hope through training, jobs and entrepreneurship. “Build Brother Build,” said Sullivan at a time when America appeared to be coming apart.

While some men preached self-help, Sullivan practiced it.

While some men talked in the abstract about the “masses”, and the “grass roots” Sullivan showed ordinary men and women how to build something extraordinary.

While some talked Black Power, Sullivan demonstrated it.

Sullivan showed the economic power of the Black community when he led a group of ministers to organized a boycott of various businesses that practiced job discrimination against Blacks in Philadelphia which he referred to as "Selective Patronage". The slogan was "Don't buy where you don't work" and the boycott was extremely effective. Sullivan estimated the boycott produced thousands of jobs for African Americans in a period of four years. 

The movement received national media coverage in The New York Times and Fortune magazine. By 1962, the effectiveness of Sullivan's boycotts came to the attention of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the SCLC who persuaded Sullivan to share information with them on his success. The exchange led to SCLC's economic arm, Operation Breadbasket in 1967 headed by Jesse Jackson.

In addition to founding OIC and Progress Plaza, Sullivan was a longtime General Motors board member and anti-apartheid activist. 

In 1977, Sullivan developed a code of conduct for companies operating in South Africa called the Sullivan Principles, as an alternative to complete disinvestment. As part of the board of directors at General Motors, Sullivan lobbied GM and other large corporations to voluntarily withdraw from doing business in South Africa while the system of apartheid was still in effect.

In 1988, Sullivan retired from Zion Baptist Church but continued to make a difference. He was determined to provide a model of self-help and empowerment to the people of Africa. He established the International Foundation for Education and Self-Help to help governments in sub-Saharan Africa reduce poverty and unemployment and build civil societies. 

In 1997, Sullivan created the Global Sullivan Principles of Social Responsibility which calls for multinational companies to take an active role in the advancement of human rights and social justice. 

Former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Sullivan made a significant contribution to Africa and the world.

“It shows how much one individual can do to change lives and societies for the better ... He was known and respected throughout the world for the bold and innovative role he played in the global campaign to dismantle the system of apartheid in South Africa.”

During his lifetime Sullivan was awarded honorary doctorate degrees from over 50 colleges and universities. 

OIC and Progress Plaza continue to serve. 

Since 1991, the biennial Leon H. Sullivan Summit has brought together political and business leaders from across the world. Delegates representing national and international civil and multinational organizations, and members of academic institutions meet to focus attention and resources on Africa's economic and social development. 

The Leon H Sullivan Summit is now organized by the Leon H. Sullivan Foundation, an organization dedicated to expanding his vision of empowering the underprivileged, which is headed by Sullivan's daughter Hope Masters.

This Sunday there will be a 100th birthday celebration for Sullivan at Zion Baptist Church, where his international movement all began. Leaders and dignitaries from across the nation and world will gather to honor Sullivan, the visionary and builder, known affectionately as “The Lion of Zion.” 

Irv Randolph is the managing editor of the Philadelphia Tribune, the nation’s oldest continuously published African American newspaper in the nation and co-founder of The Randolph Report, a newsletter on politics, culture and career and professional news relevant to Black Americans.