THE DIGITAL REPOSITORY FOR THE BLACK EXPERIENCE
"If it's up to you, it must be done."
Equal employment opportunity advocate and activist Pierpont Mobley was born in 1937. Mobley attended Antioch School of Law, where he received his M.A.degree in equal employment opportunity/employment law and his M.L.S. degree.
Mobley’s tenure in federal service began as the federal government started to implement affirmative action and equal employment opportunity programs in the private sector. However, Mobley’s career focused on expanding employment opportunities within the federal government. For more than twenty-five years, Mobley worked as a personnel and equal employment opportunity specialist for various agencies in the federal government. Under President Jimmy Carter’s administration, he was appointed chief of civil rights and equal employment opportunity programs for the United States Drug Administration. He later served as the equal employment opportunity manager for the White House. In this position, Mobley was responsible for overseeing personnel relations in the White House and writing equal employment opportunity policies for both the White House and the Executive Office of the President. He also worked for the Department of the Army as a military personnel and race relations specialist. Before retiring from federal service, Mobley worked for the Department of the Interior as the chief of complaints and adjudication for the Bureau of Mines. Mobley developed the White House’s first affirmative action plan. He also championed equal employment opportunity within the federal sector as popular support for affirmative action and equal employment opportunity began to wane.
Following a career that spanned four presidential administrations, Mobley retired as a federal appointee. In 1995, Mobley co-founded the JPM Group with his wife, Jeannette Mobley. The JPM Group is a consulting firm that specializes in the areas of management and human resources for private businesses and government agencies. The JPM Group’s clients include Verizon, Inc., D.C. Public Schools, the Federal Drug Administration, and the White House Office. Mobley remains active in local politics. A longtime resident of Washington, D.C., he served as the re-election campaign manager for Councilman Vincent Orange in 2002.
Pierpont Mobley was interviewed by The HistoryMakers on July 24, 2012.