Johnny Taylor Jr., president of The Thurgood Marshall College Fund, is looking to recruit more Blacks to the CIA. (Courtesy photo)
The Central Intelligence Agency and a national organization that financially helps students at historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) announced on Nov. 14 they are working on a plan to increase the number of Black spies and analysts at the nation’s foremost spying agency.
Johnny Taylor Jr., president of The Thurgood Marshall College Fund (TMCF), and CIA Director John Brennan said at a news conference they had not yet worked out the details of the plan, but had agreed to make increasing the number of Blacks at the agency a priority.
There are not enough black agents at the CIA, Brennan said, and he hopes an allegiance with the fund and his Diversity & Inclusion Staff, where a Black woman is the chair, will begin to solve the problem
“What we need to do is make sure that we have the capabilities, the expertise; the individuals with the perspectives, and be able to bring those together and marry those perspectives so that we can provide those insights to our consumers,” Brennan said as part of the TMCF’s three-day conference and gala.
“Inclusion and diversity are something that is the reflection, I think, of our mission, which is to make sure that we have the opportunity as well as the capability to provide to the president and others the deep rich insights that are necessary in order to advance in national security.”
The fund has supplied $250 million in funding to publicly-funded HBCUs since its inception in 1987, it says.
Brennan said he would hold his senior managers accountable by spending more time addressing the issues of diversity at the CIA. The CIA must take the initiative to find these minority students who are qualified to join the CIA, he said.
As part of the process, Brennan said he wants to ensure that his senior managers are going to colleges to recruit Black candidates and that they are mentoring and sponsoring individuals within the CIA. Additionally, they should be coming up with ideas about how to realize their goals to increase diversity in leadership positions.
The Thurgood Marshall fund, which is named after the nation’s first black U.S. Supreme Court justice, will act as a liaison by providing their names to the CIA, Taylor said.
Taylor said his fund would continue to help black men and women get college educations, but it is also the Black community’s responsibility to ensure that young people who are willing to learn and qualified are introduced to career opportunities.
“I have a saying that ‘Only us can save us’,” he said. “The African American community has a responsibility to help some of these issues as well. My job and our job at the Thurgood Marshall College Fund is to ensure that organizations like the CIA know that there’s incredibly talented source of really good students, ready to come working for their agency, if only they knew how to get there.”
Kenisha Tillmutt, a senior at Fort Valley State University, was positive about the CIA’s efforts to include more Blacks in the CIA workplace.
“It opened my eyes more,” Tullmutt said. “If he took the time out to come here and speak to us, I know he’s serious about bridging the gap for diversity. I hope he lives up to his word.”
