We Must Be The Change - Magazine - Page 2
At Southern Company, we fully recognize the leadership opportunity presented
to us to drive the conversation, create awareness and generate opportunities for
improvement on issues regarding racial equity and racial justice.
Candid conversations across the Southern Company system awakened a growing
recognition of the cumulative and compounding effects of systemic racial barriers
and bias across institutions and society.
A message
from Tom
This publication, We Must Be The Change, catalogues those discussions and some
of the actions the Southern Company system has enacted along our racial equity
journey over the second half of 2020.
This includes joining forces with Apple to unveil the Propel Center, a new digital
learning hub, business incubator and global innovation headquarters in Atlanta
for students of historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs). The center
is part of our $50 million, multi-year investment in HBCUs throughout our
system’s footprint.
This publication also examines ways we are working to foster community,
internally through organizations like VOICE, our African-American employee
resource group, and externally by elevating partnerships with those that work
for racial and social justice like the National Urban League.
Last summer, we used our sponsorship with the PGA Tour and the TOUR
Championship to shine a national spotlight on the racial equity issues in which
we are engaged. Locally, some of our work included advocating for hate crime
legislation in Georgia and removing Confederate imagery from the Mississippi
state flag.
To further define our actions and commitments, Southern Company created a
framework that will guide our businesses in their continuing work on racial equity
and racial justice. The framework confirms our collective commitment and ensures
a continued and coordinated focus on this work. It also makes clear our beliefs,
institutionalizes our commitment to ending racism and racial injustice and works
to align our volunteer, giving and community investment strategies to three
key pillars we have prioritized for impact: education, criminal justice reform and
economic empowerment.
I am very proud of the work so many people from across the system have done
to this point, and even more encouraged by our future possibilities.
Our work will continue into 2021 and beyond.
Tom Fanning
Chairman, President & CEO
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WE MUST BE THE CHANGE