Atlanta built its reputation as a city where the shared interests of economic progress and corporate growth have been intertwined.
Photographer: Joe Sohm/Visions of America/Getty Images
Trump’s DEI War Roils Corporate Giants in Cradle of Civil Rights
The Atlanta mayor has forfeited millions in federal funding by refusing to cancel airport diversity programs. Iconic Atlanta companies have been quicker to comply.
The Trump administration’s crackdown on diversity programs arrived last month for Atlanta’s airport, with a demand to cancel inclusion policies or lose federal funding. Mayor Andre Dickens refused — forfeiting tens of millions of dollars for the world’s busiest aviation hub.
But for Dickens, who’s led the city since 2022, it was worth it. Atlanta is, after all, the place that gave rise to the US civil rights movement; the city that promoted itself in the 1960s with the slogan that it was “too busy to hate.”