Charlottesville resignation: Chief executive encapsulates American Dream

Kenneth Frazier, the Merck (LSE: 0O14.L - news) chief executive who has resigned from President Trump's Manufacturing Council, has an inspiring story that encapsulates the American Dream.

His background also explains why Mr Frazier, one of only four black CEOs in the Fortune (Shanghai: 600965.SS - news) 500 list of America's largest corporations, has taken the stand he has over the Charlottesville violence and Mr Trump's response to it.

Mr Frazier's grandfather was a South Carolina sharecropper, working in the system set up following the American Civil War under which landowners allowed tenant farmers to use their land in exchange for a portion of the crop.

Although most sharecroppers were white, one-third of them were black, many of them former slaves or the descendants of slaves.

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It was an exploitative arrangement that has been described as "slavery by another name" and that, for example, often prevented sharecroppers from selling their produce to customers other than their landlord.

Mr Frazier grew up in north Philadelphia, one of the poorest areas in the city.

His mother died when he was just 12 and he and his two siblings were raised by their father, Otis, a self-taught janitor who, twice a month, made his children walk a mile-and-a-half to their nearest library to borrow and return books.

This upbringing instilled in the young Kenneth a love of learning and a work ethic that saw him graduate from Pennsylvania State University with the highest possible grade and, three years later, from Harvard Law School.

He subsequently joined a Philadelphia law firm where, working on a pro-bono basis, he secured the release of James Willie "Bo" Cochran, a black man from Alabama who had been wrongly convicted of murder and spent 21 years on death row.

Mr Frazier joined Merck as an in-house lawyer in 1992 and successfully led its defence against lawsuits brought against the company for the sale of Vioxx, a painkiller that was found to increase the likelihood of heart attacks and strokes.

He became chief executive in 2011 and is regarded by Wall Street as having done a good job.

Merck has won acclaim for its strong approach to inclusion and diversity and has 35% more non-white people in senior management roles than the average American company.

Among the causes it has championed under Mr Frazier is Merck for Mothers, a 10-year, $500m drive to reduce maternal mortality.

Mr Frazier and his wife, Andrea, were also among the founders of Cornerstone Christian Academy, which seeks to provide a high-quality education for 250 of Philadelphia's poorest children.

In an interview with Black Enterprise three years ago, he explained: "My life story...[shows] that being born poor doesn't mean that you'll always end up there.

"Your story isn't written. You get to write that story. You get to determine your future."