Dickens invokes David and Goliath in rally against Trump’s anti-DEI efforts
In a church that played host to Civil Rights Movement meetings and rallies, Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens and a coalition of former mayors held a rally declaring the need to fight the Trump administration’s anti-DEI efforts.
Hundreds of millions of federal dollars for projects, ranging from airport and Beltline construction to housing, are at stake in Atlanta’s decision over whether to come into compliance with a Trump administration order barring any entity with diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives from receiving federal dollars.
“We’ve got to stay together, and we can’t be intimidated,” said Jabari Simama, a co-convener of the new “Soul of Atlanta Coalition” and a former Atlanta city councilman. “The idea that (Trump) can use our money to intimidate us is something that we don’t believe in the long run is going to be sustainable.
“People eventually are going to wake up and say: ‘This is wrong.’”
As speakers invoked the legacies of the late civil rights icons the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and U.S. Rep. John Lewis from the pulpit of the oldest African American church in Atlanta, Dickens referenced the biblical tale of David and Goliath.
“Goliath does not stand a chance in Atlanta,” he said. “We have slayed bears. We have slayed lions. Been there. Done that.”
Dickens last month said he was weighing whether to adjust the city’s minority contracting programs to come into compliance with the Trump administration’s order. But in July, Atlanta already forfeited $37.5 million in airport funding for refusing to do so.
“It reminded us that some things are worth more than money. Our soul is not for sale,” Toni Belin Ingram, an elder in the African Methodist Episcopal Church, said to the crowd of that funding loss.
But in a follow-up statement to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Dickens’ office was less committal, saying it is still evaluating the fate of its minority contracting program.
“The City of Atlanta remains fully committed to opportunity for all,” spokesperson Allison Fouché said. “We will continue to evaluate our EBO program which is a vital tool in creating an inclusive economic landscape.”
While the legal strategy remains unclear, from the pulpit, Dickens’ comments to the newly-organized “Soul of Atlanta Coalition” were forceful.
He thanked the gathered Atlantans for standing “with us in these tough times. We are facing unprecedented times.”
The city, he noted, has been working to fill the gap left by the federal government shutdown in terms of lapsed child care funding and food assistance.
“We’re spending time feeding the least, the last, the lost. Making sure folks are housed. Making sure child care is provided,” he said. “And now we are in a fight around disadvantaged business programs.
“But again, as I say, we face the lion. We face the bear.”
‘Where it all began’
It was Atlanta’s first Black mayor, Maynard Jackson, whose administration created the city’s Equal Business Opportunity program in the 1970s. The success of that minority contracting program inspired the federal Disadvantaged Business Program that has extended to all federal transportation funding for half a century.
“This is where it all began,” former Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young told the crowd. “These ideas didn’t come from Washington to us. It came from us to Washington.”
Jackson’s widow, Valerie Jackson, said her late husband would be proud to see that “so many of you are here to honor its legacy and to declare that we will not allow the principles of fairness, diversity and justice to be rolled back.”
She urged action.
“Some call us woke. But are we? Are some of us falling asleep on the job, while others are rebuilding barriers?”
Simama, who is leading the coalition alongside former Mayors Shirley Franklin and Bill Campbell, said the next year will be spent holding meetings and spotlighting minority and women-owned business success.
“What we really want to do is organize the resistance to the attacks on DEI and affirmative action and Minority Business Enterprise programs,” he said.
“We want to give the community a systematic vehicle where they can do more than just feel bad and have it happen to them. They can actually respond and push back.”
The coalition won’t get involved in the legal efforts over the city’s programs, he said.
The mayor must “obviously follow the advice of the city attorneys … and look at the legal precedents and the legal battles that are going on around the country,” he said of Dickens’ team.
In May, some of Atlanta’s peers — including New York City, San Francisco and Boston — opted to sue the administration over the issue. Denver, Minneapolis and others joined the lawsuit shortly thereafter.
A temporary court order has protected those municipalities’ programs in the short term.
Dickens’ remarks come days after interim MARTA General Manager and CEO Jonathan Hunt reaffirmed the transit agency’s commitment to continued work with disadvantaged business enterprises, which Hunt described as industry leaders.
The program is “woven into the fabric of Atlanta,” he said, adding that in conversations with staff at the Georgia Department of Transportation and the Atlanta Regional Commission, no one wants to see the program diminished.
An interim court order already blocks transportation agencies from setting minority contractor participation, but still requires tracking and doesn’t prevent them from doing outreach to DBEs. Hunt says MARTA plans to continue those efforts.
At an Atlanta Airport Chamber event last week, General Manager Ricky Smith was also asked about the fate of the city’s minority contracting programs.
While he declined to comment directly, Smith said: “If you go back to the ’50s … I think those challenges were much harder than the challenges we’re facing today. And they overcame those challenges, right?
“So as a community we have to be willing to stand up and band together and be effective. And I think if we do that, then we’ll be OK. But we’ve got to be strategic about how we move forward.”
Democratic State Sen. Jason Esteves, who is running for governor, said now is not the time for timidity.
“We’ve seen what silence has done,” Esteves said. “Silence has not helped us. So when you have a bully, it’s best to meet them and speak out, and that’s exactly what we’re doing.”
— Staff writer Sara Gregory contributed reporting.
About the Author
As a business reporter, Emma Hurt leads coverage of the Atlanta airport, Delta Air Lines, UPS, Norfolk Southern and other travel and logistics companies. Prior to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution she worked as an editor and Atlanta reporter for Axios, a politics reporter for WABE News and a business reporter for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
