d apologize-which we did in our daily electronic newsletter within twenty-four hours, before the issue reached most people's mail- boxes (guaranteeing, of course, that employees would tear the maga- zine apart looking for the offensive cartoon). Once people had seen the cartoon, the first apology was deemed insufficient. So the CEO issued another one, but many AT&T employees-African American or not-were by now embarrassed or, in many cases, enraged. The cartoon became a lightning rod for every diversity grievance that em- ployees harbored. These grievances were shared with outsiders rang- ing from the NAACP to the Rev. Al Sharpton, who picketed our New York headquarters. In a final stroke of bad luck, all of this broke on the front page of the Washington Post just as the Congressional Black Caucus's annual Legislative Weekend was getting underway at the Washington Con- vention Center. More than 2,000 African American leaders, ranging from members of the Nation of Islam to the NAACP, were in town to discuss race relations. Speaker after speaker used the cartoon as an example of corporate America's sorry diversity record. AT&T's CEO was called to testify before the Congressional Black Caucus, whose chairman dismissed all of his explanations and apologies with an ex- pletive. Ironically, AT&T was (and still is) one of the most generous corpo- rate donors to African American organizations, including the NAACP, the United Negro College Fund, and the Urban League. At one point, 25 percent of all African Americans with Ph.D.s in electrical engineer- ing had received financial support and mentoring from AT&T. The company was a pioneer in minority purchasing and spends more than $1 billion a year with firms owned by people of color or women. Fur- Pay Attention to the Power of the Few thermore, even during the extensive downsizing of recent years, AT&T took pains to ensure that the company's diversity profile wasn't adversely affected. In fact, it actually improved. But, despite all these good efforts, there were still few