Also read: racism, Black, civil rights, Marines, lessons learned, discrimination, government

Charles P. Garcia, managing director at Cabrera Capital Markets, is the author of Leadership Lessons of the White House Fellows (McGraw Hill, 2009), a book based on 220 interviews with America's top leaders. For more about Garcia's book, go to www.charlespgarcia.com/NewBook.cfm

During the civil-rights era, Blacks, Latinos, Asians and other underrepresented groups were often excluded from high-profile jobs in Washington, D.C. But Ron Lee, an ambitious young man, bucked that trend and became the nation's first Black White House Fellow.

The White House Fellows program, a nonpartisan initiative launched more than 45 years ago, grants a handful of outstanding young Americans annually the opportunity to spend a year serving as special assistants to top-ranking government officials. Although applicants number in the thousands, fewer than 20 are chosen each year. Here are two stories and the lessons learned.

Click here to read "Congress Apologizes for Slavery."

Click here to read "The DiversityInc Top 10 Companies for African Americans List."

Click here to read "White House Memo: Benefits for Same-Sex Federal Employees."

Ron Lee spent his year (1965 -- 1966) at the U.S. Postal Service. What he discovered while he was there: Although the Post Office was the largest civilian government agency with 600,000 employees, of which 44,000 were postmasters, only two were Black.

"It was disgraceful, and Larry O'Brien [Postmaster General of the U.S. Postal Service at the time] and I agreed that it was something worse than that--it was segregation, because about 30 percent of the postal-service employees were minorities at that time," Lee explained. "So O'Brien gave me the go-ahead to find people to promote."

During his Fellowship, Lee identified 10 people for postmaster appointments and helped increase the percentage of Blacks in senior management positions at the agency's headquarters from 5 percent to 12 percent. During the 31 months he served as an aide to Postmaster General O'Brien and then as one of six assistant postmaster generals, Lee helped hire an additional 50,000 Black employees--for a total of 110,000--and raised their salaries by 40 percent, on average. He also helped direct some of the postal service's $25 million in daily postal revenue to Black-owned banks, which until then had been overlooked.

Cliff Stanley, no stranger to racism, spent his year as a White House Fellow (1988 -- 1989) working for the director of the FBI and "took every day as a special day," he says. That's because, years earlier, racism brought grave personal tragedy to his family. On a quiet Sunday afternoon, Stanley and his family were traveling to Annapolis after enjoying a dinner at his brother's home. As they headed into Washington, D.C., the car windshield was shattered by a sniper's bullet. Stanley's wife was paralyzed and his uncle was killed.

This led to a major life decision for Stanley: He could either take the Marine Corps' offer to be relieved of his duties, or he could tough it out in a profession where he constantly faced adversity and roadblocks. Stanley chose the latter. Rather than tuck tail and run, he persevered and became the U.S. Marine Corps' first-ever Black regimental commander. "I knew if I wanted to be promoted, I'd have to work five times as hard as the other guys, so I put all my efforts into working hard," he said. "I just didn't want to waste energy dealing with the issue of race. But I love the Marine Corps. They treated us with great compassion, and things change--that's one of the most beautiful parts about American society."

Stanley continued to succeed and take advantage of opportunities such as the White House Fellow Program. Over the years, the skills he learned helped him mentor hundreds of Marines, and he later became one of the Corps' highest-ranking Blacks when he retired in 2002 as a two-star general. Throughout his career, Stanley was sensitive to discrimination and ensured that everyone was judged on the basis of competence and character: a true meritocracy.

What's the Leadership Lesson?

Talent and leadership abilities are distributed randomly. Therefore, great leaders don't form judgments about people based on ethnicity, gender, religion, age or any other factor. They root out prejudice and biases and ensure that there's an equal opportunity at all levels for everyone to become leaders on the basis of merit and character.

The creators of the White House Fellowship Program knew that to be a truly great country, America could not be led largely by one or two groups. The program was created behind the idea that there is potential for greatness in all. With that mission, it has been turning Americans, from all walks of life, into some of the nation's great leaders. The program has given hundreds of Americans the tools, experiences and mentors necessary to become confident, well-prepared problem solvers and leaders. We should all admire those leaders who didn't let prejudices impede their goals, but instead used them as motivating factors that led them to greatness.