I'm a former IBMer, and aware of the Nazi use of IBM machines in the Holocaust. But, as large corporations go, IBM is one of the better ones. They hired their first female and first black salespeople in the 1930s, recognizing that people buy from folks that look like themselves.
From IBM diversity heritage - http://www-03.ibm.com/employment/us/diverse/heritage.shtml - I've pulled out a few highlights.
1953
IBM President Thomas J. Watson Jr. issues Policy Letter No. 4, which states that IBM will hire people based on their ability, regardless of race, color or creed, one year before the 1954 Supreme Court decision Brown v. the Board of Education and 11 years before the Civil Rights Act of 1964. This letter is the first U.S. corporate mandate on equal employment opportunity. Watson will use this letter as a foundation of company policy in later negotiations with the governors of Kentucky and North Carolina to build plants in their states.
1956
IBM opens the first fully integrated plant in the South, in Lexington, Kentucky, five years before desegregation of the city in 1961. Blacks and Whites work and eat together.
IBM announces its three-month Leave of Absence Policy 37 years before the enactment of the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993.
1969
Ed Buhl, IBM managing attorney, and Namon Lewis Jr., IBM senior staff assistant, San Jose Personnel, are part of the team that helps draft the nation's first Affirmative Action guidelines. With other Labor Policy Association (LPA) members, including General Motors and Westinghouse, IBM rewrites the government's first draft, which failed to reflect the business environment. The Labor Department accepts and implements the LPA revision.
1975
IBM identifies South Africa as a corporate social responsibility. Over the next decade, IBM meets with the South African government, Department of Education, African National Congress and future president Thabo Mbeki to discuss ways to enact peaceful change. IBM's South Africa Projects Fund invests $3 million yearly for Black education, entrepreneurship and legal reform. IBM and the Rev. Leon Sullivan enlist major American corporations to enforce peaceful change in South Africa. See 1970 Then & Now.
1984
Sexual orientation is added to IBM's nondiscrimination policy. IBM becomes one of the first major companies to make this change.
1988
IBM establishes the Elder-Care Consultation and Referral Service, the first national corporate program to address elder-care issues.
1994
IBM's gay and lesbian employees meet and carry a rainbow - colored "Think" banner in Stonewall 25 Gay Pride Parade. Ten years earlier, IBM was one of the first companies to add sexual orientation to their nondiscrimination polices. In 1995 IBM helps sponsor New York City Gay and Lesbian Expo.
1996
IBM announces Domestic Partner Benefits for gay and lesbian employees.
IBM cosponsors Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbian and Gays Conference (PFLAG).
IBM funds the Anti-Defamation League's anti-hate education program in San Francisco, California; Broward County, Florida; and Chicago, Illinois, public schools.
2002
The Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) is supported by IBM. ENDA would create a new federal anti-discrimination law that would prohibit an employer, with 15 or more employees, from making a decision to hire, fire, promote or pay a person based on his or her sexual orientation.
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