Rev. Dr. Jamal Bryant on the Target Fast and New Birth City

By ButterATL · April 30, 2026 · Updated September 21, 2026

Who this is

Rev. Dr. Jamal Bryant pastors New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Atlanta, one of the largest Black churches in the country. He came up through Morehouse and Duke Divinity after finishing high school with a GED, then built Empowerment Temple in Baltimore from a 43-member Bible study in his living room into a congregation of 10,000 before returning to Atlanta to lead New Birth. He led the 40-day Target fast that became a national economic action in 2025. This episode published April 30, 2026.

What the conversation covers

This is an edited summary, not a transcript.

Bryant walks Brandon Butler through how he built a church from nothing in Baltimore, what that taught him about entrepreneurship, and why he thinks every minister needs to understand business the way he had to learn it his first week at New Birth, when an HR director handed him three insurance folders and asked him to pick a plan for 63 employees.

He talks through New Birth City, a development on the church's roughly 300 acres in Atlanta. The plan runs in phases: around 100 micro homes for millennials breaking ground first, senior housing designed for grandparents raising grandchildren next, and a retail plaza for Black-owned businesses after that. He frames the project as an answer to a church culture he thinks talks about economics only when it's asking for a tithe.

The back half of the conversation is the Target fast itself. Bryant is precise about the name: he called it a fast, not a boycott, because the original plan was to give it 40 days, the length of Lent. He's clear that he didn't start the broader Target boycott. His specific role was mobilizing the Black church, a group he says has been largely absent from recent civil rights and economic organizing. He lays out the numbers his team tracked during the 40 days and the four demands the effort made of Target, including a push to build the retailer's first real partnerships with HBCUs.

He closes by distinguishing a boycott, which has an ask, a deadline, and room to negotiate, from cancel culture, which he says has none of those things and burns out before it builds leverage.

Takeaways

• Bryant built Empowerment Temple in Baltimore from a 43-member living room Bible study to 10,000 members before moving to lead New Birth in Atlanta (00:01:29).
• New Birth's campus sits on close to 300 acres; New Birth City's first phase is nearly 100 micro homes for millennials, with senior housing and a Black business plaza to follow (00:15:39).
• Bryant says his team tracked a real hit to Target's stock price, foot traffic, and online spending over the 40 days: "the 40 days impact cost the target $12 billion in their valuation" (00:29:46-00:29:50).
• The effort made four demands of Target, including rebuilding DEI commitments and expanding HBCU partnerships beyond the one Target had at the time (00:30:44).
• Bryant says a stalled Target funding commitment made after George Floyd's death was fulfilled the week of Easter following the fast, once the church held the retailer accountable (00:34:27).
• He draws a hard line between a boycott, which requires an ask and a deadline to create leverage, and cancel culture, which he says has neither (00:33:40).

In their words

"A lot of pastors, a lot of churches don't want to get arrested, don't want to march, don't want to protest. Okay, fine. All I'm asking you, you ain't got to do none of those… All I'm ask you is don't go in this store for 40 days." (00:29:34-00:29:41)

"The 40 days impact cost the target $12 billion in their valuation." (00:29:46-00:29:50)

"If you say you ain't ever going back, then you have no grounds or space to negotiate or to barter." (00:33:49-00:33:58)

Why it matters for brands working in Atlanta

This is our take, not Bryant's. The Target fast is a clear example of what organized, time-boxed economic pressure looks like when it has a stated ask attached to it. Bryant's insistence on calling it a fast instead of a boycott, and his distinction between a boycott and cancel culture, is a useful framework for any brand trying to understand why some consumer actions fade in a week and others move stock prices for months.

It also shows how a church, or any large community institution, holds real economic leverage alongside its cultural and spiritual role. New Birth City is Bryant's attempt to build permanent economic infrastructure, housing, and small business space out of that same organizing capacity, rather than let it dissolve once a single campaign ends.

Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/A00XT4_mYp0. Butternomics is hosted by Brandon Butler.