People For Member,
Ground Zero for this year’s national wave of Jim Crow voter suppression laws is my home state of Georgia.
The law passed in Georgia, and signed into law by Gov. Brian Kemp, is racist pure and simple. It aims to make voting as difficult and unpleasant as possible for as many Black voters as possible.
Prominent voices in sports, entertainment, the faith community, and, yes, even many of America’s largest corporations, have been forceful in speaking out against the Georgia bill and those like it in other states. A group of faith leaders in Georgia, led by Black clergy including myself, reached out to work with Georgia-based companies to give them a chance to voice their opposition to attacks on voting and encourage Congress to pass vital legislation to protect voters in states like mine where the Far Right has decided that Jim Crow-style voter suppression is their last best chance to recapture or hold onto power.
Several of Georgia’s largest corporations such as Coca-Cola and Delta Airlines graciously accepted our invitation and came to the table. However, Georgia’s largest company, Home Depot, snubbed us and has remained intentionally and insultingly silent on this new assault on our democracy.
So we called a boycott. And now, I’m asking you to support it.
Since the Georgia law passed, hundreds of America’s major companies have joined in a growing chorus demanding an end to these legislative attacks on the right to vote … speaking out against the Georgia law, a similar law that just passed last week in Florida, one that is moving in Texas, and another that could still pass in Arizona…
Home Depot’s silence is deafening. While national brands like Amazon, Google, G.M., Starbucks, Microsoft and so many others – including Georgia’s other major companies like Coca-Cola and Delta – have shown a willingness to stand up for the basic tenets of American democracy, Home Depot – with its history of supporting the Trump agenda and other right-wing causes – is clearly making a statement with its refusal to speak out or even engage with our coalition led by Black church leaders.
Following the January 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, major companies and business executives across the country spoke out against the violence and Donald Trump’s Big Lie about the 2020 election being stolen from him that fueled it. Well, the voter suppression law passed in Georgia and those moving in other states are based on the same Big Lie… so the companies who spoke out then are obligated to continue to stand up for our democracy as our precious right to vote is being threatened.
One of those very companies? Home Depot.
According to Forbes, “Ken Langone, one of Home Depot’s three billionaire cofounders and a major Republican donor, said he [felt] ‘betrayed’ by President Trump because he denied the presidential election results, and that led to a violent insurrection in the U.S. Capitol…”
Those words ring hollow now, as democracy is once again under attack – and, this time, right in Home Depot’s home state.
Thank you so much for everything you do.
Rev. Tim McDonald
People For Board Co-Chair
Founder, “Souls to the Polls” and People For’s African American Ministers In Action
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