Bio

The year 2020 was a wake-up call for me. That wake-up call led me to make a pledge that our firm would become involved in advocacy programs and projects for social change and racial injustice. That platform would not be a profit center for our company. Most of the work would be done pro bono. It was the right thing to do. It’s about the message not the money. 

Projects to date include taking the lead on an initiative to change the Atlanta Braves name to the Atlanta BRAVE in order to salute and recognize all the brave efforts from Atlanta’s civil rights movement as well as those of indigenous Americans, other cultures and brave acts of heroism.  In April of 2023, we hosted the award-winning film Imagining the Indian: The Fight Against Native American Mascoting at The King Center.  www.atlantahomeofthebrave.com 

The weekly blog I was writing, Jeremiah James, turned into a book - Me, Jesus, a Beer and a Cigar – launched March 2022.  It provides thoughts for everyday living cast around how a pandemic, divisive politics and the George Floyd murder all too often revealed the warts of Christianity. Topics include those focused around family, giving, politics, religion, social and spiritual awareness, sports and entertainment. 

Through my good friend George Hirthler, I became involved with a documentary about the 1996 Atlanta Centennial Olympic Games called The Games in Black and White – a story about how Atlanta’s Black and White communities headed by Andy Young and Billy Payne worked together to win the improbable bid. 

In addition, we offered a pro bono video to a professional athlete TBD to be the subject of a shoot called “The National Anthem Prayer”, an edgy and controversial representation of how to take a knee with a social, racial, humanistic, faith-based message.

Our foundation, STEAM Sports Foundation, has an advocacy component, too.  Since 2021, we award scholarships via our  “Woman of Color” grants in automotive/motorsports, emphasizing a career focus of alternative energy and/or autonomous vehicles. To date, it has awarded seven $5,000 scholarships with contributions from the likes of General Motors, Microsoft and Michael Jordan’s NASCAR race team.

In addition, personally I am an inveterate supporter of Atlanta’s Westside Future Fund gentrification and community activism projects and sit on the board of Young Authors Publishing. YAP is an organization on Atlanta’s Westside that instructs Black and Brown young people how to write and publish children’s books, securing funds that can be used for the author’s college education. I am involved in the One Race Movement ministry. Through the Partners in Change program, I have mentored adults with life challenging situations,  and proposed a campaign implemented by the Atlanta Police Foundation’s @Promise Center called “Recognize-Decide-Do” to inspire people to 1) recognize a problem (social injustice), 2) make a decision that something needs to be done, and then 3) actually do it.  T-shirt included.  

Fall ’21 kicked off Bridging the Gap, a faith-based organization created by six Black and six White brothers of faith from different backgrounds to study systemic racism. BTG has quickly grown to more than 60 members.  I currently sit on its board of directors.

LinkedIn Bio: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dickinsonbob/