The Walt Disney Company has pledged $5 million to support nonprofit organizations that advance social justice, beginning with a $2 million donation to the NAACP to further their longstanding work promoting social justice by eliminating disparities and racial discrimination through their advocacy and education programs.
“The killing of George Floyd has forced our nation to once again confront the long history of injustice that black people in America have suffered, and it is critical that we stand together, speak out and do everything in our power to ensure that acts of racism and violence are never tolerated,” CEO Bob Chapek said in a statement.
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The pledge is part of Disney’s ongoing commitment to support organizations that advance social justice. For many years, Disney has worked closely with groups that advocate for and empower communities of color, including the NAACP, whose mission is to ensure a society in which all individuals have equal rights without discrimination based on race.
The media giant has also previously provided millions of dollars in grants to help students from underrepresented groups pursue higher education, including $2.5 million to the United Negro College Fund.
In addition, through the Disney Employee Matching Gifts program, employees are able to increase their impact in their communities by donating to eligible organizations, with the Company matching those gifts.
On May 2, Disney aired a slate of special programming on a number of its TV networks to encourage a discussion of racism and oppression in America. The programming included an ABC News primetime special, “America in Pain: What Comes Next?,” that examined the protests and outrage across the country in response to the killing of Floyd. The special was preceded by the re-airing of two monumental and timely episodes of comedy “black-ish,” which explore the issue of police brutality and flaws in the judicial system, and “Juneteenth,” which examines the lack of accurate representation of African-Americans in the nation’s history.
The drama centers on an unlikely relationship between Ann Atwater (Henson), an outspoken civil rights activist, and C.P. Ellis (Rockwell), a local Ku Klux Klan leader who reluctantly co-chaired a community summit, battling over the desegregation of schools in Durham, N.C., during the racially-charged summer of 1971. The events that unfolded would change Durham and the lives of Atwater and Ellis forever.