REV. DR. LEON SULLIVAN AS PASTOR
HUMANITARIAN, YES! CIVIL RIGHTS LEADER, YES! HISTORY MAKER, YES! The intent of this is not to be an exhaustive review of Rev. Sullivan. It is also not intended to review his many human or civil rights accomplishments or his economic impact on thousands of people. Reflected in the words that I am sharing today, October 17, 2021, I want to place the work and ministry of my friend at the center of his calling as a pastor and Christian minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ. These excerpts come from his books Build Brother Build and Moving Mountains. Rev. Michael Major, a minister ordained by Rev. Sullivan, helped me compile these. Rev. Dr. Gus Roman
IN HIS OWN WORDS I have not written this book because I have writing ability, I am not writer, theoretician or philosopher. Rather I am a Christian practitioner, a minister of God – a Christian soldier who labors in the field of urban battle. Build Brother Build (Page 15) “One thing must be made clear: The 10-36 Plan, the Selective Patronage Program and the Opportunities Industrialization Center Program are essentially the work of the Christian Church. They represent for me the translation of my ministry into concrete, living terms. The inspiration for the work came from the Bible …” Build Brother Build (Page 176-177) “My personal mission as a Christian minister was to proclaim a pragmatic gospel, one that reassured people of God’s love and God’s desire to relieve the burdens of the underprivileged. In all my years of ministry, I have not found it necessary to change this essential message or my view of the church’s mission. This was the message I advanced in my ministry in Harlem, and later in New Jersey, Philadelphia, in the boardrooms of America, and ultimately in South Africa and across the continent of Africa. I preached – and continue to preach – that we need more Christians who strive day by day to work out the soul salvation of people and the salvation of the community. We need more people of faith grappling with the problems that affect people where they are. We need more people to take seriously the message found in the parable of the good Samaritan. Ministry must extend beyond the Sunday-morning sermon. It must be active in the streets. It must tend to the material needs of people as well as to the needs of the soul, for a person’s physical and spiritual beings cannot be separated.” Moving Mountains (Page 8-9)
PRAYER and SELECTIVE PATRONAGE Four vital forces were at work in the success of Selective Patronage. The first great force was prayer. The selective movement was a program led by ministers stimulated by a Bible verse: Matthew 7:7. The movement was an attempt to demonstrate how the power of God works among His people, helping them in the spirit of order to change conditions in an orderly spirit. Every meeting was begun and closed with prayer. At times discussions were heated, and tempers flared but always someone would rise and pray! And then the situation was stilled. Before crucial decisions were made that would affect a company, someone would pray to assure that we would not go too far. In the offices of executives, before meetings, someone in the visitation team would pray; and at the end of the meetings, the ministers would pray for counsel and support. These prayers were usually said outside the executive’s office, because in most cases he was so hot by the time the meeting was over that he did not want to hear any preachers praying about anything. Prayer is interpreted in many ways. To a theologian it means one thing, to a church layman another, and to a man in the street another. To the four hundred colored ministers, prayer was an attempt constantly to identify a secular purpose with a heavenly cause. We believed that direction from God was indispensable if our goal was to be reached. We were attempting to do something that seemed to some impossible at that time of rigid segregation in industry, and we needed to be conscious of God’s involvement and presence psychologically, spiritually and practically. For when we began to feel our oats, realizing the tremendous economic power of the five hundred thousand black supporters who were behind us in the movement, we needed God to keep us sensible, so that we would never lose our sense of balance. Page 77-78 Build Brother Build Matthew 7:7 Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye. shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. NIV
BEFORE FIRST BOARD MEETING AT GENERAL MOTORS Across the street from the Plaza Hotel loomed the tall, gleaming white General Motors building, the site of my first official confrontation with the white corporate world. This opportunity, forged through years of struggle, suffering, and the tears of many, was not just a short walk away. A new chapter in my life was about to be written, one that would have an impact on the human rights policies of corporations in the United States and in other parts of the world. Little did I know that my walk across the street would, by God’s grace, sow seeds that would grow to help bring down one of history’s most unique and inhumane systems of racial segregation: South Africa’s apartheid. Little did I realize that my walk would lead to the building of a bridge between two continents – North American and Africa. As David went forth to meet Goliath, God was present. God was about the business both of tearing down the wrong and building up the right. I put on my overcoat. As I took my hat in hand, I kissed Grace good-bye. It was a brisk Monday morning. Once outside, I pulled my hat firmly down on my head and raised the collar on my coat about my neck. My journey into a world I had not known before – a toward a new kind of future – had begun. I had long thought about what this day might bring. I thought of the potential ramifications for thousands, maybe millions, of people whose faces I would never see and whose names I would never know. I approached the large revolving glass door, fully composed. Or so I thought. Then came a sudden tightening in my stomach, a wailing inside of me unlike anything I had felt before. I stopped and said a prayer. God gave me strength. I pushed the revolving door and walked on, never to look back Page 1-2 Moving Mountains
IN SOUTH AFRICA In 1980, I was invited to South Africa to deliver the Hoernle Memorial Lecture at the University of Witwatersrand. It was the most important annual address delivered in the country on the subject of race. Almost ten years before I had felt like David going to meet Goliath, this time I felt like Daniel about to enter the lion’s den. Rev. Gus Roman, my very close friend and coworker, strongly urged me to decline the invitation to deliver the Hoernle Lecture, warning me of the risk of going to South Africa. During this period, I had received many threats on my life from South African as well as from America. I had already found it necessary to move my family to different locations a number of times due to the intimidating and threatening actions against me, my wife, and my children. For several years, because of my great concern for their safety, my children were driven to school by a private driver. Threats against me came not only from whites but also from blacks, who for various reasons opposed my positions. I received numerous anonymous telephone threats and unsigned hate letters Moving Mountains Page 58 The time for the speech had almost arrived. Before I left the hotel for the university, I got on my knees to pray. Gus Roman, Daniel Purnell, and Gary Robinson knelt down with me, too. Gus later said that when he looked over and saw Gary Robinson on his knees praying, he knew this was serious business, for while Gary was a hard worker and a great leader and friend, he was not necessarily known as a praying man Moving Mountains Page 60
PLACES WHERE REV. SULLIVAN SERVED PEOPLE AS PASTOR First Baptist Church Montgomery West Virginia circa 1941 Abyssinian Baptist Church, Assistant Pastor, Harlem, New York 1943-1945
First Baptist Church South Orange New Jersey 1945 – 1950
Zion Baptist Church of Philadelphia 1950 – 1988