DETROIT — General Motors, Toyota, Ford, Stellantis and Honda received the highest marks in the Rainbow PUSH Coalition’s 2020 Automotive Diversity Scorecard.

The organization, founded by civil rights activist Jesse Jackson, lauded automakers for hiring African American ad agencies, appointing more chief diversity officers and reevaluating where they stood on diversity and inclusion after the 2020 death of George Floyd sparked a social justice movement.

The scorecard is being released Wednesday during the 22nd Rainbow PUSH Coalition Global Automotive Summit. This summit’s theme is “Expanding Minority Opportunities During Global Electrification.”

GM, for example, created an inclusion advisory board in June 2020 and appointed Telva McGruder as its first chief diversity, equity and inclusion officer. Hyundai, on the other hand, brought on Culture Brands, an African American-owned marketing agency — marking the first time Hyundai has partnered with an agency dedicated to reaching Black buyers.

John Graves, chairman of the Rainbow PUSH Automotive Project, said the chief diversity officer position has seen a rebirth recently.

“When the chief diversity officer position emerged some years ago, it was a position where [they] answered directly to the president or someone of senior management,” Graves told Automotive News. “Over the years that was watered down. We would have some companies that didn’t even have that position. But I think that’s been one of the positions that we’re seeing reemerge with authority with a direct line to the president or to the chairman of the company.

“I think that’s a direct result of George Floyd and, quite frankly, some of our advocacy.”

The scorecard judges automakers on their commitment to improving diversity in employment, advertising, marketing, procurement, dealers and philanthropy.

Companies are scored as green, yellow or red. Green signals that a company is using best practices to build ethnic diversity and has shared its goals, initiatives and investments in this area. Yellow indicates diversity is evident, but not all dollar investments, key figures and other factors were disclosed.

Red means diversity initiatives were nonexistent or undisclosed or that there was not relevant information provided for scoring.

Automakers can also get red scores for failing to complete the survey, which happened in 2017 with BMW and resulted in Jackson calling for a boycott of the company. The coalition and BMW later met and discussed the company’s minority dealer network and other diversification efforts.

GM landed in the top position with four green marks, the same amount as Toyota. But GM earned the No. 1 spot because it received a green mark in the dealership category, while Toyota had a yellow.

GM had 291 minority-owned dealerships at the end of 2020 to lead the industry, according to the National Association of Minority Automobile Dealers.

Ford Motor Co., Stellantis and Honda each had three green marks.

Ford conducted the most comprehensive diversity, equity and inclusion audit in its history last year. Ford generated a net increase of five minority dealerships in 2020, raising its total to 160, and putting it behind only GM’s 291 and Stellantis with 183.

Nissan earned green marks in advertising and philanthropy. Nissan told Automotive News in May that it instituted numerous programs in the wake of Floyd’s murder, including the formation of an advisory council “to provide expanded representation across the company and add the voice of the employee to our diversity strategies.”

Graves said it’s up to groups such as Rainbow PUSH to hold automakers accountable to ensure that they keep moving forward on matters of diversity, equity and inclusion.

Graves said Floyd didn’t die in vain.

“One thing that [Floyd] did, he redirected [companies] to take principle over profit,” Graves said. “You still can make a profit and do the right thing. It doesn’t cost any more money, you don’t have to allocate any more funds to do business with minorities and African Americans and people of color. They can provide the services and the products that you need.”