Henry Leroy Sullivan Jr.

Born August 14, 1945 in Shreveport, Louisiana to Henry Sullivan, Sr. and Ida Belle Nichols Sullivan, he was the fourth of five children and graduated from Booker T. Washington High School in 1963. Later that year he was arrested at a hometown sit-in demonstration. The incident instilled in him a passion for community and civil rights that stayed with him his whole life.

He was a jokester, storyteller, and a free thinker, who frequently found himself at the precipice of new ideas. He was a founding member of the Association of Black Psychologists, a participant in the Million Man March, and an early celebrant of the Kwanzaa holiday which was personally introduced to him by its founder, Dr. Maulana Karenga. He studied chemistry at Southern University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and earned a computer science certificate from Control Data Institute. He also earned a BA in psychology from University of Minnesota and went on to a Masters program. It was during his graduate studies at the U that he began to research chemical dependency in the African American community. Upon discovery that no programs existed that included Black staff or considered culture in the curriculum and procedures, he and friend Peter Hayden co-founded Turning Point, a groundbreaking culturally focused treatment center that continues to this day.

Raised in the all-Black rural community of Cooper Road USA where his grandparents and parents ran a family farm, Sullivan held a lifelong affinity for Black foods, culture, history, and wellness. In 1995 he opened Wingmasters Restaurant on West Broadway in Minneapolis, closing it in 1997 to open Lucille’s Kitchen, with his sister Lucille Williams. Together, they put the restaurant on the map hosting National Public Radio events, weekly Insight News Public Policy Forums, and serving as a “home of serious soul food.”

Henry is preceded in death by his father, Henry Sullivan, Sr.; mother Ida Belle Nichols Sullivan; brother, John Sullivan; sister, Lucille Williams; grandson, Nicholas Janzen.

He leaves to cherish his memory his daughters Hawona Sullivan Janzen (Mark), Jermara Turner and Maya Sullivan; grandchildren Dajone Turner (LaQuandra), Khadijah Turner, Anna Janzen, Ashiyah Turner, Lemarr Grimes, Nia Sullivan Glenn and Imani Sullivan Glenn; great-grandchildren De’Ayjah Harris, Dai’Kirah Harris, De’ariyah Harris and Island Turner; sisters, Edith Sullivan, Henrietta Thomas (Donnell) and a host of nieces, nephews, cousins, friends and members of the “village.”

Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at www.neptunesociety.com/location/minneapolis-cremation for the Sullivan family.