RPC Atlanta - Peachtree Street Project

The Citizenship Education Fund established the Peachtree Street Project in Atlanta in 1999 to conduct research and education activities designed to enlighten the public’s understanding of equal opportunity in Southeast. Modeled after the Wall Street Project in New York, the Peachtree Street Project is an initiative of The Citizenship Education Fund (CEF), CEF was founded by Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, Sr. and is a charitable research and education chartered in Ohio and is governed by an independent board of directors.

The Peachtree Street Project was charged with reviewing corporate social responsibility, with a particular emphasis on performance in the areas of gender, ethnicity and racial inclusion practiced by publicly-traded corporations based in the Southeastern United States. The Peachtree Street Project has previously performed studies of the number of blacks, minorities and women on corporate boards of directors, and reviewed anecdotal evidence regarding diversity and inclusion.

In the course of conduction its work the Peachtree Street Project regularly reviews diversity rankings published by Fortune, Diversity. Inc. and others. A pattern was observed indication that relatively few firms based in the Southeast were placing significant emphasis on diversity or inclusion. It further appeared that robust programs to accomplish equal opportunity equal opportunity were rare among companies based in the region. This report is an attempt to quantify readily accessible data as a starting point of establishing a benchmark for firms based in the Southeast.