In the African-American community, every so often the debate rages about whether those who are representing our community in various facets of corporate and government life are doing so effectively, with the community’s interests at heart.
Because in the Black community there is an unwritten rule that dictates that when you are elevated to a position of influence you must give back to your roots, something that every community that has strived for the right to self-determination in this country has always done.
Given the state that Black America is in today, this debate regarding the relevance of our Black executives and their contributions to the communities that gave birth to them cannot be understated.
So on Monday I went to the 27th floor of the headquarters of General Motors (GM) in the Renaissance Center to sit down with Roderick D. Gillum, outgoing vice president, Corporate Responsibility and Diversity for GM, chairman of the GM Foundation and also head of Motor Enterprises Inc, a subsidiary of GM specializing in providing capital for minority suppliers.
During our almost an hour and a half conversation GM’s top Black executive discussed his role of connecting Detroit and other communities at the highest level of the executive chain of a company that was once heralded as the world’s largest publicly traded company.
But first he explained that his humble beginnings growing up on Dexter and the Boulevard in Detroit always inculcated in him a sense of responsibility and responding to the needs of the community.
“There was quite a distance between Dexter and the Boulevard and the General Motors building. And I think over time that distance shortened a little bit,” Gillum said. “So GM has been a good company and always from my standpoint created opportunities, helped established the African-American middle class in this community. It is a very proud legacy. So I was pleased 30 years ago to become part of it.”
ARMED WITH a law degree from Northeastern University School of Law in Boston, Gillum, a Michigan State University graduate, went to GM in 1979 after a stint as an attorney with the National Labor Relations Board in Detroit, rising through every rank at GM including becoming secretary of the board of directors.
At GM little did he realize that one day he would not only be the company’s most visible African-American in his time, but also the one steering the direction of the GM Foundation that supports community and charity-related functions.
After he was elected to the office of vice president and made head of the foundation more than a decade ago, Gillum recalled placing his first call to his mother, a former Detroit Public Schools teacher and assistant principal.
“She was overwhelmed. From her perspective this was a validation of everything she’d been telling me, that when you stay in school and work hard, good things will happen.”
Looking back, Gillum, who exits the stage this week at GM, said he is happy that as chair of the GM Foundation he made certain that the company diversified its giving patterns to “touch the least of these in our community in a very different way. We increased our profile in minority serving organizations and made certain they had the opportunity to benefit from the generosity of a great company.”
For example, GM provided financial support to the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, which was in dire straits a few years ago, faced with the possibility of closing its doors, and other cultural groups that were traditionally outside the charity range of the company.
“If I were to look at some of our funding priorities in the state of Michigan, we supported cultural institutions we had before. The Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA) we have supported for years, so I made certain that the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History was treated in the same manner. As you know I was chair of the (museum) board there during a difficult time,” Gillum said.
Despite indicating that as vice president he had access to the CEO and board chairman, I asked Gillum if at any point in his tenure at GM he felt like his hands were tied.
“No. I must say if I look back at my career, having a degree of freedom being a vice president of a company gave me a great deal of flexibility and there were examples where I had chance to expose others in the company to some of the major organizations in our community like the NAACP and the Urban League.”
Aside from the Wright museum in Detroit, there are several initiatives GM took under Gillum that are crucial in the Black community that he says leaves the company with a proud legacy in the community he came from.
THE BATTLE to maintain affirmative action at the University of Michigan was fought on several fronts, from activism in the streets to debates in the corporate boardrooms.
GM was the first major corporation to file an amicus brief with the U.S. Supreme Court arguing that affirmative action was good for business. It did so when many other were either shaking in their boots to join in the battle or debating whether it was at all important to take on.
Gillum said for GM there wasn’t a lot to debate about joining the fight to maintain affirmative action.
“That was unnatural position for not only GM but for any corporation to get involved in an issue like that. We took a leadership role, developed the strategy, filed the first brief and then sent it to other corporations as an example of what they could do to join and participate and support affirmative action with us and help build that coalition from the business community,” Gillum said. “I was also very pleased to see that the brief was cited by the Supreme Court majority opinion as the demonstration of the business community’s support for affirmative action and the fact that we value it as a company.”
Though standing behind U-M to save affirmative action elevated the company’s profile on such issues of diversity, Gillum said he was wrong in his calculation with consumers.
“We had unbelievable letters from consumers who did not like our position and I did not anticipate that. There were some angry people who didn’t like what U-M was doing in terms of affirmative action. So I did misjudge that. But at the end of the day it was the right thing to do,” Gillum said. “My personal involvement in that and willingness to shepherd that was very significant and recognized by other people.”
MOST RECENTLY, GM placed the first major gift of $10 million toward the creation of the Martin Luther King Jr Memorial to be built at the National Mall in Washington.
“With that GM endorsement came a sense of legitimacy for this project. It served as a catalyst for others to be involved too. The company is there in a very visible way and to have this monument to an African-American in the National Mall among presidents is very significant,” said Gillum who chairs the Martin Luther King Jr. National Memorial Project Foundation.
Asked about his role model, Gillum, named the late Rev. Leon Sullivan, a name that evokes passionate activism, social justice and connecting the links with the African continent.
Sullivan, a Baptist minister from Philadelphia who initiated and led boycotts of corporations that refused to hire Blacks in the wake of the Jim Crow era, opening up more than 4000 jobs, accepted an invitation in 1971 to serve on the board of directors of GM. He became the first African- American to sit on the board of any major corporat
ion in the country.
“Strangely enough, in Philadelphia, the big metropolitan city, you think people had work, but discrimination was still very strong. I decided to confront discrimination, again, because businesses were not employing Blacks in Philadelphia, Blacks couldn’t even get jobs as waiters in the good hotels,” Sullivan noted then.
Through his Opportunities Industrialized Center (OIC), established in 1964 and operated from an abandoned jailhouse, Sullivan provided jobs and life skill training and matched graduates up with employment needs of the Philadelphia business community.
After sitting on the GM board, Sullivan used his clout to launch an international campaign against apartheid in South Africa and created a manual for human rights and equal opportunity that companies in South Africa ought to use in their operations.
HIS MANUAL, titled “The Global Sullivan Principles,” is still credited for helping companies tackle discrimination around the world. Now every year the Leon H. Sullivan Foundation hosts the Sullivan Summit in Africa in his memory.
“When you talk about closing a plant or doing something that downsizes employees, the business people in the room understood it. Rev Sullivan made you go through an explanation. He would say ‘tell me about the community, tell me what is going to happen to the community?’ He would always talk about minority suppliers and dealers,” Gillum said.
“Rev Sullivan would always ask the right questions. When no one else in the room would ask that kind of question, Rev. Sullivan would. He made us more accountable and offered us another perspective.”
WOULD COMPANIES still accept the Sullivan perspective that focuses on the human conditions, the results of decisions made in corporate boardrooms?
“Well, I have a bias toward Rev. Sullivan’s view. But you can get that outside the boardroom too. But clearly having someone like that in the room does add another dimension to the discussion,” Gillum said.
Gillum said his decisions were respected because he had the ear of the company leadership and possessed a broad portfolio that wasn’t just pegged on diversity issues.
On the question of what makes a successful Black executive, Gillum said the individual has to be comfortable about who they are and also recognize that they didn’t get there by themself.
“There were a lot of variables that went into place in order for them to succeed. That helps. I think too often you do see executives — African Americans or whatever their background may be — who think that they got there by themselves and that’s really never the case. In the African-American tradition we’ve always reached back to help someone else along the way,” Gillum said. “I think a good board member or executive understands that is part of their obligation. Clearly the bottom line of the company is why they are there but that notion of giving back, reaching out is integral to their success in my view.”
With Gillum gone, GM will now be left with two high ranking Black executives, Ed Welburn, first African-American vice president for Global Design, and Kevin Williams North American vice president and general manager, Service and Parts Operations.
“None of us were confused today about who we are and where we came from. We do have that support. But each of us find ourselves in instances where we are the only ones in the room,” he said.
He would not dwell on his post retirement plans except to say that he is going to take a three-month vacation before deciding on what to do next. And if he decides to accept an offer from a corporation, it would not be another carmaker.
GM, he says, is here to stay after going through a restructuring process. His role has been spread across various departments for now and no successor has been named yet. He says diversity is needed more than ever.
Gillum credits his wife, Linda, son Aaron and daughter Bria for their support.
Senior Editor Bankole Thompson is a radio and television analyst. Watch his TV show, “Center Stage,” every Saturday at 1 p.m. on WADL TV 38. E-mail bthompson@michronicle.com.