Georgia faith leaders call for nationwide boycott of Home Depot over response to voting law – By Quinn Scanlan (ABC News) / April 20 2021
Gov. Brian Kemp blasted the boycott, saying he stands with Home Depot.
Hearkening back to the boycotts during the civil rights movement and apartheid, Georgia faith leaders representing over 1,000 Georgia churches have called for a nationwide boycott of Home Depot, accusing the largest company based in the Peach State of standing on the sidelines in the voting rights battle playing out not just in Georgia, but across the country.
“A boycott is not something we wanted to do, but now it is something that we must do,” Bishop Reginald T. Jackson said in a statement read during a press conference Tuesday. “They have simply refused to respond, not only to our request to meet, but to their other corporate partners. They believe their silence is appropriate, but not on the issue of voting rights. Blacks and people of color, like others, are also their customers and they benefit from our dollars … we believe they should oppose any effort to suppress our votes.”
Jackson, the movement’s leader and head of the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church’s sixth district that includes over 500 AME churches in Georgia, could not attend the event outside a Home Depot in Decatur. But according to his statement, the coalition could add more companies to the boycott call, singling out Chick-fil-A and Arby’s, which the coalition plans to contact this week. Jackson was adamant the boycott was led by faith leaders, directly disputing the Republican-espoused idea that President Joe Biden and Fair Fight Action founder Stacey Abrams are behind it.
