PRINTER'S NO. 1752
No. 190 Session of 2001
INTRODUCED BY J. WILLIAMS, BISHOP, CALTAGIRONE, CAPPABIANCA,
DIVEN, D. EVANS, GEORGE, KIRKLAND, LEDERER, MELIO, MYERS,
OLIVER, SAINATO, SANTONI, SURRA, THOMAS, WANSACZ, WASHINGTON,
WATERS, BUXTON, DeWEESE, JOSEPHS, McCALL, PALLONE, SAMUELSON,
STABACK, TIGUE, VEON, YUDICHAK, ROEBUCK, HORSEY, FREEMAN,
C. WILLIAMS, YOUNGBLOOD, CRUZ, JAMES AND MANDERINO,
APRIL 30, 2001
INTRODUCED AS NONCONTROVERSIAL RESOLUTION UNDER RULE 35,
APRIL 30, 2001
A RESOLUTION
1 Observing April 30, 2001, as "Reverend Leon Sullivan Remembrance
2 Day" in Pennsylvania.
3 WHEREAS, The Rev. Leon Sullivan, a civil rights crusader,
4 minister and business leader born in Charleston, West Virginia,
5 on October 16, 1922, represented courage, compassion, truth and
6 social and economic justice; and
7 WHEREAS, Rev. Sullivan was ordained at age 17, while
8 finishing his college degree at the all African-American West
9 Virginia State College, and in 1943 he moved to New York City
10 where he caught the eye of then-Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia, who
11 hired him to work on programs to reduce crime among the city's
12 youth; and
13 WHEREAS, In the early 1960s he returned to grass-roots
14 ministry by becoming the pastor of Zion Baptist Church in
15 Philadelphia, where he organized the ministers of more than 400
1 African-American churches and decided on a nonviolent boycott,
2 known as the "Philadelphia Boycotts," of local companies that
3 would not hire African-Americans; and
4 WHEREAS, The boycotts worked and jobs eventually were offered
5 to people of all races, and Rev. Sullivan established the
6 Opportunities Industrialization Center, Inc., in 1964 to provide
7 job training that has to date trained about 2 million people in
8 142 centers worldwide; and
9 WHEREAS, In 1971 Rev. Sullivan became the first African-
10 American board member of the General Motors Corporation and
11 devised the Sullivan Principals, which he described as a "code
12 that companies of America and the world came to follow to end
13 Apartheid peacefully, starting with the workplace," to put
14 economic pressure on the South African government to end
15 apartheid; and
16 WHEREAS, Rev. Sullivan retired from his full-time ministry at
17 Zion Baptist Church in 1988 and moved to Arizona, where he
18 founded the International Foundation for Education and Self Help
19 (IFESH), which conducts self-help training programs in 30
20 countries; and
21 WHEREAS, Rev. Sullivan has been honored for his achievements
22 throughout his lifetime, including being named by Life magazine
23 as one of the "100 Outstanding Young Adults in 1963," was
24 awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1992 by then-
25 President George H. W. Bush and was recognized in 1999 by then-
26 President Bill Clinton when he was presented with the Eleanor
27 Roosevelt Human Rights Award; and
28 WHEREAS, In 1999, along with United Nations Secretary-General
29 Kofi Annan, Rev. Sullivan launched the Global Principals of
30 Corporate Social Responsibility which call for multinational
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1 corporations to play a larger role in combating racism,
2 discrimination and social and economic injustice; and
3 WHEREAS, Rev. Sullivan died on April 24, 2001, at 78 years of
4 age of leukemia; therefore be it
5 RESOLVED, That April 30, 2001, be observed as "Reverend Leon
6 Sullivan Remembrance Day" in Pennsylvania, a day to honor his
7 spirit, life, work, achievements and contributions to this
8 Commonwealth, our nation and the international community.
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