Pastor Jamal Bryant has made it clear that Target’s change in leadership will not end his campaign for accountability, urging supporters to maintain pressure on the retail giant until it delivers on promises made to Black communities.
Target announced that longtime executive Michael Fiddelke will succeed Brian Cornell as CEO at a time when the company faces slumping sales, public backlash, and ongoing boycotts. While Bryant welcomed the transition, he stressed that a new leader does not erase Target’s unfulfilled commitments.
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“I’m almost excited about the change, but our demands have not changed since February,” Bryant said, according to 11Alive.
Those demands include:
- Honoring a $2 million pledge to the family of George Floyd,
- Investing $250 million into Black-owned banks,
- Forming partnerships with six historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs), and
- Recommitting to diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives across the company.
Bryant’s boycott campaign has already gained significant traction, with more than 350,000 people signing his petition. He has also encouraged consumers to redirect their spending toward the hundreds of thousands of Black-owned businesses operating across the country.
The financial toll has not gone unnoticed. Target itself admitted that boycotts and consumer backlash have contributed to a downturn in sales. For Bryant, this underscores the power of collective economic action.
“The Black community wields $2 trillion in spending power. That force hasn’t been fully targeted — no pun intended,” he said. “Seventy years ago, we stopped a bus in Montgomery. Today, we are holding the retail industry accountable for betraying our community.”
But Target may not be Bryant’s only focus. He has already set his sights on Dollar General, criticizing the discount chain for saturating rural communities while employing more than 300,000 workers — many part-time, a strategy he argues allows the company to avoid paying fair wages and providing benefits.
Beyond boycotts, Bryant continues to push for economic empowerment through New Birth Missionary Baptist Church, where he serves as senior pastor. The church has launched entrepreneurship training programs and is actively building homes for first-time buyers as part of its mission to create long-term pathways to financial justice.
For Bryant, the fight is larger than Target or any single corporation. It is about reshaping how major retailers engage with the Black community and ensuring that corporate promises translate into real, measurable change.
