by Marc H. Morial
<TriceEdneyWire.com> — “Our findings suggest that Black leaders are required to meet a higher bar for advancement and point to the need to level the playing field for advancing up the organizational hierarchy” – researchers Seung-Hwan Jeong, Ann Mooney, Yangyang Zhang, and Timothy J. Quigley.
As a hostile backlash to racial justice and gender equality wipes out desperately needed corporate diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, the latest Fortune 500 rankings marked two revealing milestones.
Though only nine of the companies (1.8%) are led by Black CEOs and just 11% are helmed by women, both metrics are record highs in the 70-year history of the iconic list.
The nine Black CEOs, who are to be congratulated, are:
Marvin Ellison of Lowe’s
Thasunda Brown Duckett of Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association (TIAA)
Toni Townes-Whitley of Science Applications International
Christopher Womack of Southern Company
Calvin Butler, Jr. of Exelon
Dave Bozeman of C.H. Robinson Worldwide
Michael Bender of Kohl’s
René Jones of M&T Bank
David Rawlinson II of QVC Group
While Fortune noted in its announcement the significance of women CEOs breaking the 10% mark for the first time, neither the number of Black CEOs nor its implication were mentioned. In a separate article, however, the magazine reveals that only 28 of the more than 2,000 CEOs represented on the list since 1955 have been Black.
The nine Black CEOs on the 2025 list together represent more than 230 years of corporate executive experience and nine advanced degrees. The companies they lead made up more than $244.76 billion in revenue last year.
The facts are inconvenient for an administration and its allies who are actively promoting racist lies about ‘reverse discrimination’ and ‘lowered standards’ associated with diversity and inclusion initiatives. In reality, the bar for advancement is significantly higher for women and Black CEOs. While men are more likely to advance directly to the CEO spot from lesser roles like division head, women are more likely to have served as president of a company before making the leap to CEO. And Black CEOs, on average, have accumulated more years of education, advanced degrees, and elite education than their White peers, according to research.
The qualifications of Black CEOs are generally so impressive that companies commonly see their stock prices jump in the days after their appointments are announced.
“Put simply, our study suggests that it is not enough for aspiring Black CEOs to be just as good as their White counterparts. They must be substantially better to make it to the helm of firms,” the researchers wrote. “Until this is addressed, the poor representation of Black leaders in firms and the differential in market returns to their appointments will likely continue.”
The higher bar that keeps women and people of color from advancing up the corporate ladder is not only unjust, it’s also bad business. More diverse companies report higher revenue, and are more likely to be profitable. The vast majority of companies with strong DEI in their management teams will surpass their financial goals.
But like segregationists who would rather drain their community’s pool than to allow equal access for everyone, anti-diversity activists are pressuring companies to scale back or eliminate efforts to remove barriers to equity and inclusion.
My fellow civil rights leaders and I make the risks very clear in a letter we sent to Fortune 1,000 CEOs: “These capitulations weaken businesses and the American economy more broadly. And these shortsighted decisions make our workplaces less safe and less inclusive for hard-working Americans.
“Abandoning DEI will have long-term consequences on business success, ultimately shirking fiduciary responsibility to employees, consumers, and shareholders. Businesses that fail to include women, people of color, people with disabilities, and LGBTQ+ people neglect their financial duty to recruit and retain top talent from across the full talent pool and limit their company’s performance overall.”
The slow progress represented by the Fortune 500 list exposes the lies in the Trump administration’s DEI propaganda. In capitulating to these lies, corporations are denying themselves access to an entire cross-section of talent and expertise, shortchanging their stockholders and customers, and lowering standards of excellence for the entire country.
