AME Church, Faith Leaders Pause Georgia Corporation Boycott

ATLANTA, GA — A group of faith-based leaders hit pause on the April 7 boycott of major Georgia corporations until after their planned, closed-door meeting with corporate executives next week.

The national boycott of Atlanta-based Coca-Cola, Delta Airlines and Home Depot was initially scheduled for Thursday after the passage of Senate Bill 202, the bill containing Georgia's new voting law. Religious leaders — including the Sixth Episcopal District of the African Methodist Episcopal Church — and civil rights activists have said the state's new law "seeks to suppress the votes of Black and brown people," and claimed Georgia's corporations did not levy their power enough to speak out against the new law.

Delta, Coca-Cola and Home Depot officials, as well as others, all spoke out against SB 202 last week, some in their strongest statements yet. But the statements came about a week after the bill was already made law.

"I need to make it crystal clear that the final bill is unacceptable and does not match Delta's values," Delta CEO Ed Bastian said in the internal letter released last Wednesday morning that made its way into public viewing. "The entire rationale for this bill was based on a lie."

Reginald Jackson, bishop of the Sixth Episcopal District of AME Church, said he wishes the companies' leaders had spoken out more prior to the bill's passage. But he and other faith leaders will have a closed-door, virtual meeting with corporate executives from Delta Airlines, Home Depot, Southern Company, AT&T, Aflac, UPS and other Georgia-based companies next week.

“Since that call to boycott, The Coca-Cola Company and Delta Airlines have subsequently broken their public silence and came out strongly against SB 202," Jackson said in a statement. "We are convinced that if faith leaders had not publicly committed to a boycott, they would not have spoken out publicly."

The meeting is scheduled for April 13 at 3:30 p.m. The boycott is on hold until after the meeting, Jackson said.

“Hopefully, we won’t have to give the signal,” Jackson said in a statement. “We want these companies to speak out publicly against this legislation, to use their lobbying resources to fight voting restrictions in other states and to publicly support federal legislation to expand voting rights.”

In the meantime, faith leaders will hold a protest soon outside the Augusta National Golf Club, where the Masters Tournament is underway from April 8-11.

SEE ALSO:

• AME Church, Others Plan April 7 Boycott Over New GA Voting Law
• Corporations Chime In On GA Election Law After The Fact
• Election Law Restricts Absentee Voting, Weakens Sec. of State
• SPLC, NAACP, ACLU Sue Georgia Over New Elections Laws
• Activists Call On GA Corporations To Condemn Voting Bills
• Kemp Says MLB Caved To Fear In Moving All-Star Game From Atlanta