Target CEO Brian Cornell met with civil rights leader the Rev. Al Sharpton Thursday as megachurch Pastor Jamal Bryant announced that nearly 200,000 people signed up for a 40-day boycott of the retail giant over the company’s decision to scale back diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.
Bryant, who leads the New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Stonecrest, Georgia, shared in a Facebook post Wednesday that phase two of the boycott, which started on March 5 and ended Thursday, will be revealed on Sunday.
“Almost 200k have joined the movement and the momentum is still growing! They’ve lost billions, stock has dropped, foot traffic is silent and @target still hasn’t budged,” Bryant said in his post. “This weekend 100 vendors are coming to @newbirthmbc to set up the Bullseye Black market. We need you to pull up. Sunday I announce next steps!”
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In a statement Thursday, Sharpton, founder and president of the National Action Network, said he had a “very constructive” meeting with Cornell and planned on reaching out to Bryant and other allies about it.
“This morning, I had a very constructive and candid meeting with Brian Cornell that included NAN National Board Chair Dr. W. Franklyn Richardson and NAN Senior Advisor Carra Wallace. I am going to inform our allies, including Rev. Dr. Jamal Bryant, of our discussion, what my feelings are, and we will go from there,” Sharpton said.
On Wednesday, the civil rights leader told CNBC that Cornell requested the meeting but did not say what it would be about. Sharpton has not yet called for a boycott of the retail giant over the DEI rollbacks. However, he said he would consider it if Target doesn’t confirm its commitment to the black community and working with and investing in black-owned businesses.
“I said, ‘If [Cornell] wants to have a candid meeting, we’ll meet,’” Sharpton said of a call he had with Target officials. “I want to first hear what he has to say.”
Bryant’s boycott began as Target announced that it expected a “meaningful” drop in their first quarter profits due to “ongoing consumer uncertainty,” soft sales in February and concerns about tariffs, CNBC reported. Across the retail industry, sales were down more than expected to start 2025.
“We expect to see a moderation in this trend as apparel sales respond to warmer weather around the country, and consumers turn to Target for upcoming seasonal moments such as the Easter holiday,” Target’s finance chief, Jim Lee, said in a statement to CNBC. “We will continue to monitor these trends and will remain appropriately cautious with our expectations for the year ahead.”
Bryant, who has been encouraging black businesses not to work with Target over the DEI rollback, previously noted that some 100 black vendors had pulled their products from Target shelves.
He also argued that Target’s DEI rollback is a “spit in the face of black people.” This includes a commitment by the company to spend more than $2 billion at black-owned businesses by 2025.
The Georgia pastor accused Target and other large corporations, such as Walmart, of capitulating to President Donald Trump’s push to end DEI policies that he says “undermine our national unity,” among other things.
Several corporations have reevaluated their DEI policies in the aftermath of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2023 ruling, which found that the admissions policies of the University of North Carolina and Harvard University that use race as a factor were unconstitutional.
Among the demands of Bryant’s boycott campaign are that Target honors its $2 billion pledge to the black business community “through products, services, and black media buys;” deposit “250 million amongst any of our 23 black banks;” restore “the franchise commitment to DEI;” and “pipeline community centers at 10 HBCU to teach retail business at every level.”
On Tuesday, Sharpton met with the chairman and CEO of PepsiCo to “get clarity on its stance on DEI,” according to NAN. He will consult with members of the NAN Board of Directors over Easter “to determine any next steps with Target, PepsiCo, and other companies that have scaled back their DEI programs or pledges.”
In his comments on Wednesday, Sharpton suggested that elections shouldn’t dictate a company’s commitment to fairness.
“You can’t have an election come and all of a sudden, change your old positions,” said Sharpton. “If an election determines your commitment to fairness then fine, you have a right to withdraw from us, but then we have a right to withdraw from you.”
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