Leon howard sullivan biography channel

Rev. Leon H. Sullivan was a prominent figure in civil rights activism and a preacher who advocated for selective patronage among the black community. He was also one of the civil rights campaigners who popularized the term “Don’t buy where you can’t work” in an attempt to disaggregate the labor of major companies.

However, in the late 1960s, he realized that it wasn’t enough to push for desegregation without empowering people of African American descent economically.

When he moved to Philadelphia in the 1950s to begin his ministry with the Zion Baptist Church, he noticed child delinquency was one of the challenges facing the black community, and formed volunteer clubs to get the youth off the streets; when he succeeded, he began helping them to get jobs.

However, local jobs were segregated, encouraging him to begin the campaign to dissuade African Americans to boycott companies that wouldn’t employ them. His selective patronage company from 1960 to 1963, got 29 companies to employ black workers, resulting in 2000 jobs, according to progress plaza.

Another challenge arose with the skill gap among black workers – many of them lacked employable skills. This prompted the reverend to establish Opportunities Industrialization Centers to train black labor. In the wake of those campaigns, he felt more needed to be done to move the black community from being the labor force to the ones controlling businesses.

He later decided to use his ability to mobilize his congregation and inspire collective action. During a Sunday service, he called upon 50 members of his congregation to contribute $10 per month for 36 months to support an unrestricted cooperative program. The response from his congregation was overwhelming, with more members stepping forward the following Sunday to pledge their support.

Over the course of a couple of years, an additional 400 members joined the cause, demonstrating the strong belief and trust

North Broad Street between Oxford Street and Girard Avenue is now known as Rev. Dr. Leon H. Sullivan Way.

Dozens attended the unveiling ceremony Saturday in North Philly at the Human Services Center named for Sullivan.  It was billed as a celebration of “a visionary, a man of God and a community activist.”

“You throw a pebble in a pond, you see the waves that ripple out,” said State Sen. Sharif Street,  D-Philadelphia. “And if that was the case, Dr. Leon Sullivan was like an asteroid hitting the ocean.”

A Charleston, West Virginia, native, Sullivan moved to Philadelphia to serve as pastor of Zion Baptist Church. The Philadelphia Tribune summarized some of his achievements: the founding of the Opportunities Industrialization Center (OIC) in 1964, followed in 1968 by Progress Plaza, the first Black-owned and -operated shopping center in the United States. The plaza now bears his name as well.

Sullivan, who died in 2001 at age 78, has also been credited for boosting self-empowerment.  When the mantra of the 1960s was “burn, baby, burn,” he told African Americans to “build, brother, build.”

Street called himself a direct product of Sullivan’s legacy.

“One of those folks he embraced was a young man from a farm out in Conshohocken who was living in North Philadelphia, trying to figure out what he was going to make of himself,” Street said.  “And Dr. Sullivan saw something in him and hired him to work at the OIC.”

The young man Street was referring to his father, John Street, a future mayor of Philadelphia.

It took a decade to make Sullivan Way a reality, according to Howard Sullivan, who said one of his father’s lasting legacies was helping minorities get trained for jobs.

“Creating job-training centers around the world was one of his lasting things,” the younger Sullivan said. “There are still 30 or so in this country, and a lot in Africa also.”

After remarks by dignitaries, people gathe

This article originally appeared on The Philadelphia Tribune.

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The late Rev. Leon H. Sullivan’s legacy has an international reach.

However, it will be honored this weekend in the North Philadelphia neighborhood where he left an indelible mark.

On Saturday, the stretch of North Broad Street between Oxford Street and Girard Avenue will be renamed “Rev. Dr. Leon H. Sullivan Way” in his honor. The unveiling ceremony begins at noon in front of the Leon H. Sullivan Human Services Center at 1415 N. Broad St.

The Yorktown neighborhood where Sullivan Way is located is surrounded by several entities Sullivan founded, including Opportunities Industrialization Center (OIC) and Sullivan Progress Plaza.

“I can imagine how proud he would be,” said Hope Sullivan, the youngest of his three children. “I remember as a child driving up and down Broad Street every day and every night. It seemed like we lived on Broad Street. It’s an honor.”

Born in Charleston, West Virginia, Leon Sullivan died in April 2001 at the age of 78. There is also a street named after Sullivan — also named Sullivan Way — in Charleston.

Sullivan moved to Philadelphia in 1950 and became the pastor of Zion Baptist Church at the corner of Broad and Venango streets until he retired in 1988.

Sullivan was a proponent of African-American entrepreneurship, and his message rubbed off on Philadelphians like Congressman Dwight D. Evans.

In 1969, Sullivan wrote “Build, Brother, Build,” a book arguing for Black entrepreneurship in response to the riots of the 1960s.

“While people were saying, ‘burn, baby, burn,’ Rev. Sullivan was encouraging African-Americans building in our own communities,” Evans said. “In 1969, he was encouraging us to do the same things that we’re trying to do in 2019. His philosophy is grounded into my public policy.”

Sullivan founded OIC, a series of training schools aimed at putting African Americans to work in