One of US’s first black CEOs hits out at Georgia voting reform as ‘bald-faced’ racism

‘There is simply no excuse for what Georgia legislature has done.’

One of America's first black CEOs has slammed Georgia's new voting law as "bald-faced" racism.

The former CEO of Time Warner and CBS, Dick Parsons, said the law was a "bone-headed" and "bald-faced attempt" to suppress the votes of black people.

Mr Parsons was one of the first black CEOs of a Fortune 500 company and is one of 72 black business leaders who have signed a letter urging companies to oppose the law.

SB 202, also known as the Election Integrity Act of 2021, adopts stricter voter ID laws for absentee ballots and states that volunteers can't hand items, such as food and water, to those waiting in line to vote.

Speaking to CNN on Tuesday, Mr Parsons said: "There is simply no excuse for what the Georgia legislature has done."

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He added: "What does feeding somebody or giving somebody a glass of water have to do with fraud? It's just a bald-faced attempt to prevent or suppress the number of black voters who show up to vote in Georgia. We felt as a corporate community that we needed to call the legislature out, hold them accountable."

He noted that black voters in Georgia wait longer in line to vote compared to white voters. He said that he hoped that CEOs making their opposition to the law clear would give other states considering similar laws pause.

"We're hoping that other states will see that they can't enact this kind of legislation unaccountably ... and have no consequence to pay for it," Mr Parsons, who identifies as a Rockefeller Republican, told CNN. Nelson Rockefeller was a liberal Republican who served as governor of New York and vice president to Gerald Ford.

Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has said that companies who wade into politics face "serious consequences". Former President Donald Trump has called for a boycott of companies who oppose voting laws that conservatives claim are designed to prevent voter fraud.

Mr Parsons told CNN: "Do people really want to deprive themselves of all the products and services [of those companies] in an effort to sort of turn the clock back to 1865? I don't think so, but we'll find out."

He argued that Mr Trump "basically is ignorant of history" and wants to hinder progress, adding: "That's an impossible task. No one in history has ever been able to do it. And he won't be able to do it."

MLB decided to move their All-Star game out of Atlanta in opposition to the new law. Mr Parsons, who previously served as the interim CEO of the LA Clippers in the NBA, said it was "the right move," and noted that many professional athletes are black.

He said: "They have to stand with their own constituency, their own employees."