By Erick Johnson
(Source: Jacksonville Free Press)
Weeks after Target Corporation infuriated Blacks across the country with its $300,000 donation to a prominent Baptist organization, the Progressive National Baptist Convention (PNBC) at its annual conference in Chicago this week, blasted the retailer and officially joined a nationwide boycott.PNBC did so in response to Target agreeing with President Donald Trump to eliminate its DEI programs and initiatives.
At a press conference July 21 at McCormick Place, PNBC President Reverend Dr. David Peoples, along with several prominent Black pastors including Reverend Dr. Otis Moss III of Trinity United Church of Christ, made the announcement as calls grow louder for the National Baptist Convention to return its donation to Target.
“The PNBC will not sell you out,” Peoples said. “We hear you. We will not sell you out.”
The Target boycott has reenergized activism in the Black Church. Once considered a powerful, influential institution, Black church affiliations steered Black America through difficult times, fueling the Civil Rights Movement. But in the last two decades, the Black Church’s relevance and impact have faded as many churches closed or became less politically engaged and watered down.
According to PNBC’s website, the organization has 2.5 million members who attend churches across the country.
Peoples told the Chicago Crusader that as part of PNBC’s “buycott,” his organization will find and financially support Black-owned businesses. He said the organization will also promote those businesses by showcasing their products and services to church members.
During the boycott, Black leaders will partner with the U.S. Black Chamber of Commerce to provide a digital directory of more than 150,000 Black-owned businesses across the country.
The announcement was one of many highlights of the four-day conference, which was stacked with seminars, panel discussions on social justice and the impact of Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” on America’s Black communities.
In the grand ballroom at McCormick Place, cheers erupted after Peoples said the PNBC will organize a “buycott” that will encourage members to patronize Black businesses that the organization will promote along with Georgia Pastor Jamal Bryant. In January, Bryant started the national boycott after Target eliminated its DEI initiatives shortly after President Trump took office.
“What we’re seeing today is a full assault on Black workers,” Peoples said, referring to tens of thousands government workers who have been fired by Trump’s administration since January.
Bryant said the Target boycott is the most effective of its kind since the Montgomery Bus Boycott in Alabama in 1955.
Bryant tied the boycott to poverty in America, saying an economic gap still exists between white and Black residents. He described poverty as “an act of violence” committed when the government is led by leaders like Trump.
As part of Trump’s political agenda, since January, cities, corporations, universities and non-profit organizations have eliminated or curtailed DEI initiatives. This, Black leaders say, whitewashes America.
Under DEI-Diversity, Equity and Inclusion-policies, Blacks and other minorities obtained funding, jobs and high-ranking positions at institutions and corporations, positions from which they had been previously deliberately excluded, and that for decades were mostly led by whites.
When Target eliminated its DEI initiatives in January, Bryant and Nekima Levy Armstrong, a Minnesota activist, responded with two separate boycotts. Both leaders encouraged Black consumers to not shop at Target. In Chicago, Black leaders held protests at local Target stores and callers flooded radio station WVON 1690 to express support for the boycott.
But earlier this month, activists learned that Target gave a $300,000 donation to the National Baptist Convention. Bryant, in an interview with USA TODAY, said Target’s donation included four $75,000 payments to Black church organizations that were part of the Progressive National Black Convention.
In June, Bryant condemned the donation at his church, New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Stonecrest, Georgia.
“It’s really a slap in the face and an insult,” Bryant told USA TODAY.
In February, at the beginning of the boycott, more than 250,000 people signed a pledge to avoid shopping at Target. In the first quarter of the year, the company reported it lost $500 million in year-to-year sales, citing reaction to the boycott and lower foot traffic.
As part of his boycott of Target, Bryant has made four demands, including honoring a $2 billion pledge to the Black business community that Target had in place to purchase Black-owned products, services and investing in Black media. Bryant has also called on Target to invest in Black-owned banks, establish retail centers at historically Black college and universities and fully restore DEI initiatives.
During the press conference at PNBC at McCormick Place, Reverend Frederick D. Haynes III, senior pastor of Friendship-West Baptist Church in Dallas, blasted white Christian nationalists who he said helped fuel Trump’s MAGA movement.
“White Christian nationalists were on the wrong side of the Civil Rights Movement,” Haynes said.
“They have abandoned Jesus in their pursuit of power. The Republican Party was once a party of morals, but now it’s a Party of money.”
