“That where the doors of employment were closed to persons with pigmentation, they now swing open.” – Charles Toney, 1968

Photo presented to Charles Toney upon his retirement from John Deere, and signed by all four men.

Charles Toney’s passion for equality and civil rights for minorities was a major part of his career at John Deere. In a time when it was hard for minority groups to find jobs, Charles was hired at John Deere in 1936 and was sent to welding school by the company soon after. This allowed him to become the first African American welder in Iowa and Illinois. Aside from the two years he spent working to promote equal opportunity employment for minorities all over the U.S.  (1945-1947), Charles continued working as a welder at John Deere for almost twenty years.

Dolores Tingle (right), an administrative assistant at John Deere.

His efforts to bring job equality to all minorities continued when he transferred to Deere & Company, the leaders of John Deere, in 1964. Although he had worked hard to reach this point in his career, he knew that John Deere needed to change the way the company interacted with minorities. Charles was offered the chance to make a difference in the company by starting up the Equal Employment Advisory Council as the Manager of Minority Relations in 1968. He later requested to get an executive position at the company and was promoted to the Director of Affirmative Action in 1972, making him the first African-American executive at Deere & Co.

Charles’s executive job allowed him to bring equality to the John Deere corporation. He set up guidelines for the company that required the hiring and promotion process to be based on skill rather than skin color. His department worked to also stop internal prejudice by holding annual training sessions for management that taught employees about equal opportunity employment.

Mal Duncan, a chemist at John Deere

The work Charles did at John Deere had an influence on the lives of many. Charles worked to bring recruitment efforts to many high schools and colleges with high minority populations, provided resources about the recruitment process and promoted students to stay in school.

With the help of other companies, Charles encouraged college students to pursue professional and executive jobs as co-chairman of the Southern University Cluster Program. This program gave Southern University, a college with high minority enrollment, resources to help educate students and bring business experience from these companies to students so that graduates would be competitive job applicants.

When Charles became the Director of Affirmative Action, he wished to see minority and female workers in every job category at John Deere. He accomplished this goal before he retired in 1983.

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