Black members of Congress push for more diversity in Silicon Valley hires

Enlarge / Rep. Barbara Lee (center) spoke along with Rep. G.K. Butterfield (right) at the San Francisco offices of Hustle on Monday. (credit: Cyrus Farivar)

SAN FRANCISCO-Days after two leading members of the Congressional Black Caucus got Facebook to commit to hiring a black member to its board of directors, they again pressed major tech firms to diversify the hiring of executives and rank-and-file employees.

In brief remarks before dozens of assembled employees at the downtown offices of Hustle, a texting startup, Rep. Barbara Lee (D-California) and Rep. G.K. Butterfield (D-North Carolina) said Monday morning that they have been meeting with companies including Uber and Salesforce to improve on a longstanding issue of underrepresented minorities in Silicon Valley.

"To our surprise, all of [the companies], without exception, acknowledged that they had a problem and need our help to fix this problem," Butterfield said, noting that he expected other companies to follow Facebook's example.

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