Pastor Jamal Harrison Bryant on Target boycott ‘victory’ and the Black dollar’s power: ‘They’ve awakened a sleeping giant’

Jamal Harrison Bryant calling people to boycott Target in Conyers, Georgia, in May. This year he urged his 10,000 Atlanta church members to commit to a 40-day ‘fast’ from the company starting on Ash Wednesday that led to a sweeping nationwide boycott. Photograph: Provided by Jamal Harrison Bryant

On 2 February, a month before lent, Jamal Harrison Bryant stepped up to the pulpit of his Atlanta area megachurch. Wearing a sweater bearing Muhammad Ali’s likeness and standing behind a lectern branded with a Black power fist clutching a cross, the senior pastor of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church railed against companies that rolled back their DEI initiatives to appease Donald Trump.

Explicitly, Bryant, 54, singled out Target – which, among other things, had pledged to invest $2bn in Black-owned businesses by the end of 2025 as corporate reparations after the murder of George Floyd – for going back on its word. He urged the “conscientious Christian community” to link arms with his 10,000 church members and commit to a 40-day “fast” from the company starting on Ash Wednesday.