Latest news with #NewBirthMissionaryBaptistChurch
Bloomberg
7 days ago
- General
- Bloomberg
Pastor Sees Boycott of Target Stores as New Civil Rights Fight
Pastor Jamal Harrison Bryant is midway through a fervent sermon at his New Birth Missionary Baptist Church outside of Atlanta. Thousands of his flock are on their feet in the stadium-sized chapel as he strides back and forth across the stage in a light blue suit, his voice rising and falling. He alternates between conversation and condemnation, shifting between references to Shakespeare and Alcoholics Anonymous. 'Something's gotta break!' He repeats the challenge over and over, admonishing worshipers to break the habits that lead to debt, broken marriages, drugs or drinking. Then he turns to perhaps his biggest battle, an uphill, four-month-old fight to get Black consumers to break their habit of shopping at Target.
Forbes
23-05-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Another Target Boycott Called This Sunday To Honor George Floyd In Prayerful Protests
The Rev. Dr. Jamal Bryant has called for a National Target Boycott this Sunday, May 25, on the 5th anniversary of George Floyd's murder, to take a 'spiritual stand for justice, remembrance and hope' in prayer gatherings outside local Target stores. Calling it a 'national act of unity through faith,' Bryant will lead a nine-minute, 29-second prayer gathering– the length of time Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on George Floyd's neck causing his death – at the Target store in Conyers, GA at noon this Sunday. Twenty other pastors and faith leaders will organize similar protests at Target locations in Georgia, North Carolina, Ohio and the Baltimore/Washington, D.C./Virginia. Bryant serves as senior pastor at New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Stonecrest, GA and launched the 40-day 'Target Fast' through the Lenten season that coincided with other Target boycotts after Target rolled back its corporate diversity, equity and inclusion programs. Prior to pursuing his ministry and theological studies – he holds a Master's of Divinity from Duke University and a doctorate from the Graduate Theological Foundation – Bryant was a national youth and college director of the NAACP for six years. Immediately after Target announced it concluded its DEI goals and its 'Racial, Equity, Action and Change' initiative, replacing it with a 'Belonging' program earlier this year, calls for Target boycotts erupted, starting on Feb. 1 during Black History Month, followed by the 'Feb 28 Economic Blackout Day' organized by the People's Union and the 40-day Target Lenten Fast. May 25 is a particularly poignant day for prayer, being the fifth anniversary of George Floyd's death, which sparked protests across the country due to the brutality of his murder. And having occurred in Minneapolis, only about ten minutes away from Target's headquarters, the company was one of the first corporations to experience protests. At the time, Target CEO Brian Cornell said Floyd's death had a personal impact on him and his employees, after which the company increased its support for the Black community with further DEI commitments. Target has been facing slowing sales with revenues off 3.1% in the fourth quarter ending Feb. 1 and most recently, in the first quarter 2025 ending May 3, net sales declined 2.8%. A nearly 6% drop in comparable store sales most impacted Target's results. Over 80% of Target sales originate in stores. reports visits per Target location were down 4.8% in the first quarter. In addition, since Feb. 28 Economic Blackout Day, Target's foot traffic has dropped 14 of the 16 successive weeks. The exceptions were the weeks of Apr. 14 and Apr. 21, surrounding Easter Sunday, when foot traffic was flat. A 4.7% uptick in comparable digital sales gave the company some encouragement in the first quarter. However, the most reliable indicator of the boycotts' impact is in-store foot traffic, as it is a social activity conducted in public, while digital purchases remain largely private. Pastor Bryant and his community remain committed to continue boycotting Target, claiming more than 200,000 people have signed up to carry forward the cause. Specifically, is asking Target to honor previous pledges of $2 billion to purchase Black-owned products and services, deposit $250 million across 23 Black-owned banks, establish community retail centers at ten Historically Black Colleges and Universities to educate future retail leaders and fully restore diversity, equity, and inclusion at every level of the company. Bryant has his organization's sights on other companies that have scaled back their DEI initiatives after President Trump's executive order ending DEI across the government. 'Over 17 companies have walked away from diversity, equity and inclusion, but we decided, with resolving intentionality, that we were going to do one at a time. Target is the first. It is not the last, and another company is going to be coming on the radar in the next couple of weeks,' he said to CNN. $1.7 trillion by 2030 – The amount McKinsey estimates Black American's spending power will reach in 2030, up from $910 billion in 2019. 'We've got staying power. We've got a model of the Montgomery Bus Boycott 70 years ago that went 381 days. Our community is resolved and focused and intentional that we're not going to spend our dollars where we're not honored and where we're not appreciated,' Bryant shared with CNN. Pastor Bryant joined the Rev. Al Sharpton in an April meeting with Target's Cornell held at Sharpton's National Action Network headquarters to discuss the company's policies surrounding DEI. After the meeting, Sharpton called it 'constructive and candid,' and said he 'would consider' calling for a Target boycott if the company doesn't recommit to the Black community, according to CNBC. As of yet, Sharpton remains on the sidelines but supports the efforts of Bryant and others in their boycott initiatives. Cornell made no mention of the meeting with Sharpton and Bryant in the latest earnings call.
Forbes
23-05-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Target Sales Drop In First Quarter As Boycott Persists
Three months into a boycott initiated in response to Target's decision to roll back its diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts, the retailer has reported a decline in sales and profits. While the company saw a spike during Valentine's Day and Easter, first quarter net sales were $23.8 billion, down from $24.5 billion the previous year. 'We are not satisfied with recent performance,' CEO Brian Cornell said in a statement released May 21. 'We're focused on accelerating our strategy to drive long-term profitable growth and deliver the assortment, experience and value consumers expect from Target.' Cornell has mentioned tariffs, inclement weather, and increasingly cautious consumers in interviews about Target's weakening forecast. Yet, the boycott's impact is undeniable. The campaign to urge Target to honor its commitments to Black consumers and entrepreneurs, which began in February, has included secular and faith-based groups. Notably, Pastor Jamal Bryant led his Georgia congregation in a 40-day Target fast, from Ash Wednesday to Easter. Eventually more than 200,000 people pledged to join New Birth Missionary Baptist Church's efforts, according to the campaign website. 'Not since the Montgomery Bus Boycott has Black America come together in such a unified vision, a unified focus, and a unified front,' Rev. Jamal Bryant told congregants on Easter Sunday. 'For ten weeks we've stayed out of Target.' Bryant was among the leaders who met with Target representatives in April in an effort to come to a resolution. At the meeting, the company agreed that it would fulfill its commitment to invest $2 billion in Black businesses by July 31, according to Bryant. He told his congregation that Target did not concede to three additional demands, including investing $250 million with Black banks. Thus, he shifted the fast into a 'full out boycott.' From a historical perspective, the pastor's actions most resemble Rev. Jesse Jackson's social justice work in the 1960s as leader of the Southern Christian Leadership Council's Operation Breadbasket. Jackson championed economic empowerment and called on Black consumers to boycott companies that did not hire Black people or contract with Black vendors. In Operation Breadbasket: An Untold Story of Civil Rights in Chicago, 1966–1971, author Martin L. Deppe documents a 1968 campaign that Jackson led against A&P, a Target-like retailer of its era. Operation Breadbasket launched the 'Don't Buy' drive when the grocery store chain failed to honor promises it had made regarding Black brands and employees. Rev. Bryant's campaign is driven by a similar economic justice agenda. This weekend, as many Black consumers could be flocking to Target to purchase supplies for their Memorial Day festivities, Bryant is urging them to go to the store for a different reason. 'Next Sunday will mark the fifth anniversary of the murder of George Floyd,' the pastor told his congregation at the end of service on May 18. 'As a consequence, hallmarking that moment, next Sunday we are going to Target in Conyers [Georgia]. We are not going in. We're going outside in righteous indignation.' Rev. Bryant announced that more than 60 other clergy from across the nation would be joining him in leading their respective congregations to local Target stores on May 25. The pastors intend to pray for just under ten minutes, the same amount of time that Floyd struggled to breathe as Derek Chauvin pressed his knee into Floyd's neck. Black organizations have taken steps to uplift Black entrepreneurs in an effort to soften the sting of the boycott. New Birth Missionary Baptist Church hosted 100 Black vendors in a marketplace on its Stonecrest, Georgia campus. Churches in Dallas, Houston, Chicago, and New York have followed suit. The NAACP also created a Black Consumer Advisory to guide shoppers on which retailers to avoid and where to spend instead. Despite these efforts and the persistent call to support Black businesses by shopping directly from their websites, some entrepreneurs are feeling the impact of the boycott. 'It's a bloodbath,' Melissa Butler said when a viewer asked about how her company, The Lip Bar, was holding up during a May 22 live video stream on Instagram. Butler is one of several Black founders who vocalized concerns about how the boycott could hurt already vulnerable Black businesses back in February. She said that while her beauty brand's products were still on Target shelves, her company was losing money. She encouraged her audience to buy directly from The Lip Bar's website. Tabitha Brown, an entrepreneur, actor, and author who partners with Target to sell everything from home decor to food products, recently took to Facebook to issue a message about how the boycott is affecting Black authors. 'Target is a huge book retailer,' Brown said in the video posted May 20. 'And so because of the boycott, many of our Black authors books' did not sell well, because people were not purchasing the books, because they're sold at Target. This affected their sales. It affected their ability to be on the New York Times bestseller list. But the bigger issue is that it also affects the next deal opportunity for them to write another book with their publisher.' Brown, who released her fifth book, Hello There, Sunshine, in March, urged her audience to add Black authors to the list of people to support in their efforts to keep their dollars in the Black community. She expressed understanding for consumers who do not want to spend their money at Target and encouraged them to buy from other book retailers, or directly from authors when possible. 'We're all in this together,' she said.
