How A Church Group Upended Wall Street To End Apartheid
An idealistic seminary student pressured General Motors to withdraw from Apartheid South Africa and launched a billion dollar industry on Wall Street.
Walk A Mile is where I publish honest stories based on dramatic moments in the lives of controversial people. (Narrative Nonfiction)
Dear Walkers,
I met Tim Smith a few years ago at a conference for “responsible” investors. There were good speakers, but Tim got the only standing ovation. On stage he seemed kind, humble, and wise; the kind of grandpa everyone should have. But as the tribute video showed, his work was also extremely controversial. Among a lifetime of “achievements” was revolutionizing Wall Street to help end Apartheid - with far-reaching and unintended consequences.
Tim was celebrated that day, but his legacy was soon vilified. Not long after the conference, Elon Musk, Vivek Ramaswamy, and others called responsible investing, “The Devil incarnate,” “Communist,” and “Satanic.” Legislators in Texas, Florida, and elsewhere passed bills to outlawed the kind of investing Tim pioneered. At a time when responsible investing accounted for nearly a third of the global economy, a brutal backlash was underway.
I reached out to Tim. He explained that while attacks from Elon and others were particularly “nasty,” mixing money and morals had been controversial from day one. I asked about those early days when he and church activists first used finance to convince corporate America to leave South Africa as a way to pressure the Apartheid regime. I couldn’t resist the irony of how efforts by concerned christians was suddenly “satanic.”
The more Tim recounted from those early days, the more I sensed there were important lessons from the past that could inform the present controversy. Even the backlash had started back then. From Richard Nixon and Nelson Mandela to Milton Friedman and Desmond Tutu, the names have changed but not the eternal debate: What is the role of a corporation in society?
Today, Tim Smith’s organization is in the crosshairs of the U.S. Congress. Several Committees are working to permanently end the industry he started. Federal laws will likely be passed later this year and some industry leaders may be found in contempt. The retirement of millions of hard-working Americans hangs in the balance.
At a time of unprecedented corporate power and influence, the question of what it means to be a responsible corporation has never been more relevant (or so relative). It’s a topic that strikes to the core of business, democracy, and what it means to be an American. Getting anywhere close to a consensus requires far more than a tweet, or a million of them for that matter.
Rather than further inflame the controversy, I decided my contribution to this hot button issue should be an honest and entertaining story that lets readers walk in the shoes of a young Tim Smith, the idealistic seminary graduate that revolutionized Wall Street by mixing morals and money.
My nonfiction story, The Godfathers, will be published as a weekly newsletter over five parts, followed by a research series that exposes the long-lost church archives and old press clippings that drive the story. If you want to follow along, click below to subscribe to Walk A Mile on Substack.
Read Part I of The Godfathers: A World Away
Thank you so much for laying out the important origins of ICCR in this wonderfully written series.