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New York, August 9, 2005 —FORTUNE announced today its "Diversity 2005" package, which includes a profile of six unsung civil rights heroes: the first black men to fight their way into the executive suite. The stories appear in the August 22 issue of FORTUNE, available on newsstands August 15 and at www.fortune.com.

While Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, and Jackie Robinson are household names, those who first integrated the nation's biggest companies are largely unknown. FORTUNE spent nearly a year searching for them, and tells their riveting tales of isolation, perseverance, and bravery. Most of the six men featured by FORTUNE—ranging in age from 64 to 85—were working for large companies at the height of the civil rights movement, and saw their careers as another way of marching for the cause. "Gordon Parks has this great expression, 'choice of weapons,'" says Clifton Wharton, the first black CEO of a large company (TIAA-CREF). "In terms of fighting, you always have a choice of weapons. Some of us chose to do our fighting on the inside."

FORTUNE's six pioneers:

• James Avery, 82
  Exxon, 1956-86; rose to senior vice president
  "When I arrived in town on business, I never knew where I was going to sleep that night."
  
  
• James "Bud" Ward, 80
  Marriott, 1966-85; rose to senior vice president
  "You didn't really feel segregation until you got old enough to go to work."
  
  
• Darwin Davis, 73
  Equitable, 1966-88; rose to senior vice president
  "I realized very quickly that I'm under a microscope in corporate America. People are watching everything I do."
  
  
• George Lewis, 64
  Philip Morris, 1967-2001; rose to CEO of Philip Morris Capital Corp.
  "I felt if you could control the money, you could rise above people's subjectivity and have a little bit of power."
  
  
• Lee Archer, 85
  General Foods, 1970-87; rose to CEO of three of the company's investment arms
  "Why should it be notable that you're the first? It doesn't mean you were the first who was capable. It just means you were the first to be given the chance."
  
  
• Clifton R. Wharton Jr., 79
  TIAA-CREF, 1987-93; CEO
  "It was my responsibility to perform to the best of my ability to keep the door open [for other black executives]."
  
  

In a related essay, "Won't It Be Grand When We Don't Need Diversity Lists?," Allers takes a look at the progress diversity has made in corporate America—but notes that everything isn't perfect. Minorities are the most likely employees to leave the corporate world, and often do so to become entrepreneurs. "After all the progress and all the money spent on diversity programs—as much as $80 billion over the past ten years, by some estimates—many people of color still don't feel welcome in corporate America," says Allers. When the focus evolves from recruitment to retention and promotion, the revolving door may not look quite so attractive. "Change will come," concludes Allers, "if for no other reason than that it's become a bottom-line issue. When it finally does come, how will we know? Well for one thing, we won't need to run any more lists of influential people of color."

For further information please contact:
Emma Gilpin
Susan Brown Williams
212-522-0133
susan_williams@timeinc.com

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