The Pluralism Project at Harvard University

Eric Erfan Vickers
American Muslim Council Executive Director

Eric Erfan Vickers embraced Islam in 1980 while a student at the University of Virginia School of Law, where he concentrated in business law. Upon graduating from UVA Law in 1981, Vickers returned to his hometown of St. Louis, Missouri and there began practicing law as an associate attorney with one of the nation's most prestigious law firms, Bryan Cave. Two years later he opened his own law practice, specializing in civil rights and business law.

In 1984, while maintaining his law firm, Vickers began serving as Special Counsel to the Washington D.C. based Minority Business Enterprise Legal Defense and Education Fund, Inc. (MBELDEF), which was founded by former Maryland Congressman Parren Mitchell to protect through litigation the rights of minority businesses. As Special Counsel for MBELDEF, Vickers successfully litigated discrimination cases on behalf of minority businesses and organizations across the country, earning MBELDEF's highest award for his accomplishments.

As a prominent activist leader, Vickers has been involved in numerous protest demonstrations over civil rights issues, particularly issues related to the economic empowerment of minorities. In 1999, he organized and led the shutdown of Interstate 70 in St. Louis at the morning rush hour to protest the lack of jobs and contracts going to minorities on the highway project. Vickers and over one hundred other demonstrators, including Reverend Al Sharpton, were arrested for the protest, which resulted in Missouri raising its minority goal to the third highest in the nation, and in the State establishing a construction training school in the inner city that has now graduated and placed over two hundred minorities in construction jobs.

In 2000, Vickers founded the Coalition for North St. Louis Economic Development, Inc. (CNSLED), a not for profit organization whose mission is the economic revitalization of the inner city of St. Louis. As President of CNSLED, Vickers engineered a strategic alliance between CNSLED and a major U.S. bank, which entails a commitment from the bank to invest $100 million in the inner city of St. Louis, and to develop a paradigm for inner city financing. Vickers also served for ten years as a board member of a minority bank, reflecting his commitment to business development as the key to the social uplifting of the minority community.

Vickers has been an active member of the Muslim community, serving as the Chairman of the Board of the Islamic Center of St. Louis from 1983-1985, and being a board member of the American Muslim Alliance since 1995. Vickers ran for Congress in 1994 against the then twenty-six year incumbent, William Clay, and ran again in 2000 against his son, Lacy Clay. Although unsuccessful in these two bids, the campaigns allowed Vickers to meet and coalesce with Muslims from across the country who were supportive of the effort to place a Muslim in the U.S. Congress.

Since September 11, Vickers has attended two private meetings with President George W. Bush, which he has written about as a Guest Columnist in the St. Louis American newspaper, including an open letter to President Bush sternly criticizing the policies and practices of Attorney General Ashcroft. See www.stlamerican.com.

Vickers is the recipient of numerous awards for his outstanding legal and activist services to the community, including most recently receiving the Malcolm X Distinguished Service Award from the Universal African Peoples Organization for his "Outstanding Achievement and Leadership in Activism, Law, Politics, and Economic Justice".

But what Vickers has found to be the most gratifying experience of his life was making Hajj in this Year 2002 (1422 H).