HR shaped American race relations, says diversity guru

HR played a pivotal role in helping America move from a country that “defined racial segregation” to one that has embraced its first African-American president, delegates at the SHRM conference heard.

Earl G Graves Senior, an entrepreneur and diversity champion, said the emergence of African-American people in major company leadership roles was thanks to a generation of visionary HR professionals. “You opened the doors to African-American people who had been denied entry to the corporate mainstream. You embraced diversity as an opportunity to expand the breadth and ideas of your organisations,” he said.