Our History: Founder Dr. Leon Sullivan & OIC's Legacy

The Reverend Dr.  Leon H. Sullivan was an African-American minister, social activist, businessman, educator, author of the Sullivan Principles and other books, and founder of OIC of America. 

Dr. Sullivan was born on October 16, 1922 in Charleston, West Virginia. The son of an elevator operator and a movie theater janitor, he grew up in an impoverished, segregated  community. Sullivan said the defining moment of his life came when he was eight when he tried to buy a soda at a white lunch counter.  Sullivan recalled the clerk said to him, “Stand on your feet, black boy; you can’t sit down here.” “It was then I decided I was going to stand against that kind of thing for the rest of my life.”  This led to him conducting a private desegregation drive in his hometown at the age of ten. He won a first victory when the owner of a segregated restaurant offered him a free meal.

At the age of 17, he was ordained a Baptist minister. After finishing high school, he graduated from West Virginia State College with the help of a football scholarship and a part-time job at night in a local steel mill. After graduating in 1943, Sullivan served as pastor of Zion Baptist Church in Philadelphia. He increased the church’s membership to 6,000 and became known as “The Lion from Zion.”

In Philadelphia, Sullivan began his mission to create more jobs for minorities. He organized pastors from more than 400 Black churches and implemented “selective patronage,” meaning, “don’t buy where you don’t work.” Through these boycotts, businesses were forced to hire more minorities. Sullivan discovered, however, that many minorities were unprepared for jobs.

This encouraged him to found the Opportunities Industrialization Centers Inc. of America (OICA), which operates through a national network of local affiliated organizations. OICA has nearly thirty affiliates in fifteen states and the District of Columbia.  OICA provides realistic training for Blacks and other poor or otherwise disadvantaged people. In 1971, Sullivan became the first Black to serve on the board of General Motors, a major U.S. Corporation.

In 1975, he was described as “the most hated man in South Africa” due to his efforts to end apartheid.  Sullivan created the African/African American Summit to strengthen the bond between the two continents and established the International Foundation for Education and Self-Help, which trains teachers and oversees the building of schools in Africa. In 1992, Sullivan was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. He also received the Eleanor Roosevelt Human Rights Award in 1999.

He was a 33rd Degree Prince Hall Mason, a Shriner, and a member of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Incorporated.  The Reverend Dr. Leon Sullivan died in Scottsdale, Arizona, on April 25, 2001, leaving behind a legacy of empowerment and community upliftment.

1964 - Dr. Sullivan Founded OIC | Sullivan founded Opportunities Industrialization Centers (OIC) of America in an abandoned jail house in North Philadelphia. The program took individuals with little hope and few prospects, offered them job training and instruction in life skills, and then helped place them into jobs.

1966 - National Expansion | OIC receives national recognition and begins to expand, establishing centers in eight additional cities.

1969 -Build Brother Build Published| Dr. Sullivan publishes “Build Brother Build,“ his seminal work that details the philosophy, birth and development of the OIC model.

1970 - National Headquarters | OIC of America, Inc. is established to serve as the national headquarters to OIC Affiliates and provide technical assistance to communities replicating the OIC model.

1971 - Prime National Contractor | OIC received $32,600,000 from the Department of Labor to serve as “a prime national contractor” for manpower services throughout the U.S. for more than a decade.

1988 - QOP | OICA develops the Quantum Opportunity Program (QOP), a multi-year, intensive case management and mentoring program for high school youth. The program is rigorously evaluated and eventually adapted by the Eisenhower Foundation for widespread dissemination.

1998 - OIC Impact | OIC has trained more than 3 million people, and placed more than 2.5 million in jobs, with its alumni collectively earning $80 billion a year (L.H. Sullivan, Moving Mountains, Judson Press, 1998). 

2014 - High Demand Green Careers | Leveraging $12.8 million in US Department of Labor grants through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, OICA launched programs in 7 cities to prepare workers for high-demand “green” careers.

2018 -  Launches SOAR | Skills and Opportunities for Achievement and Responsibility Central to OICA's mission are community-based initiatives that work to reaffirm dignity and equip underserved communities with the tools to help people help themselves. 

2023 -  Launches STN Network | The Sullivan Training Network trains poor and justice-involved people for in-demand, living wage careers and connects employers to a reliable workforce so their businesses thrive.

Our goal: reach 200+ communities, training 25,000 people annually across the nation by 2030.

Students receive credentialed and customized training for in-demand jobs, such as:

• Construction
• Disaster recovery and rebuild
• Financial services
• Information technology
• Manufacturing
• Supply chain management

2025 -  Montgomery County OIC turns 60!| In 2025, Montgomery County OIC will celebrate sixty years of Helping People Help Themselves.