Pastor Jamal Bryant says the yearlong national boycott of Target tied to the company’s rollback of diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives has officially ended.
On Wednesday (March 11), the New Birth Missionary Baptist Church pastor shared the update in a Washington D. C. news conference alongside others who also led specific efforts to boycott the store around the country.
“We are effectively today closing this chapter because we have other fights that we have got to see and other things that we’ve got to tackle,” Bryant said Wednesday.
The boycott started in March 2025 after Target scaled back some of its DEI programs following executive orders from President Donald Trump aimed at eliminating diversity initiatives across the federal government and private sector.
Dr. Bryant was one of the most vocal critics of those cutbacks, stating that the move “spit in the face of Black people.” He cited figures that Black people spend roughly $800 million at Target every month.
He also referred back to Target’s pledge following the killing of George Floyd and police brutality protest movement of 2020-21 that it would invest $2 billion in Black businesses by 2025.
This launched the Target Fast campaign shortly afterward, calling on consumers to stop shopping at the retailer until it met four demands:
- Honor a $2 billion pledge of investing in Black-owned businesses
- Pipeline community centers at HBCUs to teach retail business
- Restore DEI commitments
- Deposit $250 million into Black banks of their choosing
Dr. Bryant’s spokesperson Ebony Porter-Ike told USA TODAY on Wednesday saying, that after a year, the company has yet to reinstate their DEI programs. “There are no new commitments, no reversals.”
But Dr.Bryant believes that the protest produced progress in other areas citing Target programs focused on workplace advancement and inclusion, which he says still support opportunities for employees of different backgrounds.
“They have a program called Belonging, which gives access to everybody, not just for entry-level positions, but to be able to ascend into C-suites,” he said. “It is essentially DEI as I read it. It is the exact same thing.”