On May 29, 1945, Personnel Director Maury Cope represented Shure as one of the speakers for the Chicago Conference on Home Front Unity, held in the Council Chambers of Chicago’s City Hall. The Conference was sponsored by Chicago Mayor Edward Kelly’s Committee on Race Relations. On the speakers’ platform were prominent representatives of the city, industry, labor unions, and the Urban League.
In reporting on the Conference, Chicago Daily News columnist Howard Vincent O’Brien wrote: “Slowly, clumsily, we really are getting on with the business of practicing what we preach. If Russia can achieve unity out of a wilderness of creeds and tongues, so, says Chicago, can we. And by the democratic process, too.”
The invitation to Shure to join in the Conference was due to the Company’s 20-year history of advocating good racial and cultural relations in a multi-ethnic workforce. Many companies had a “white only” hiring policy, but Shure did not discriminate in hiring or promoting employees.
Sidney N. Shure made fairness, equality, and Reflecting a diverse world of cultures opportunity cornerstones of the Company’s recruiting, hiring, and training processes. As the Company grew from 10 to 100 to more than 1,000, it reflected the diverse cultures that composed Chicago. Within the many neighborhoods throughout the city were people from every corner of the world, and they were all welcomed into the Shure “family.”
“I always tell people that being at Shure is like being at the United Nations,” commented an employee who had been with the Company since the 1960s. “There are people here from all over Chicago and from every culture and nationality.”
Employees recall that throughout the Company’s history when orders for products arrived in different languages, there was always someone who could translate the orders and correspond with the customers.
According to Chairman Rose L. Shure: “Diversity is one of the values that shaped the Company. We have been fortunate to have people from so many countries, cultures, and backgrounds contribute to the Company. They reflect the world in which we live.”
