Bio
Bob Dickinson
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 that developed included 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 the biggest cheerleaders for 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. Sadly, no takers. The pressure to take a stand while taking a knee proved a bridge too far.
Our foundation, STEAM Sports Foundation, began to flourish. With a focus on developing career paths in motorsports and automotive engineering for underrepresented college students, the foundation to date has provided 21 scholarships and led five Immersion Tours to major race weekends and OEM headquarters. It is currently developing internship relationships with organizations for the scholarship wines and a nationwide career summit at a prominent HBCU for women who wish to become motorsports engineers. Contributions have come from the likes of General Motors, Microsoft, and Michael Jordan’s NASCAR race team. The foundation recently launched a campaign to raise $3 million by 2028.
In addition, personally I am an inveterate supporter of Atlanta’s Westside Future Fund gentrification and community activism projects and formerly sat on the board of Young Authors Publishing (now Muse, Inc.). Muse Inc. is an organization founded 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 also remain 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 and serve as BTG’s vice president. Another non-profit board on which I serve is the “Q Jones Legacy Scholarship Fund,” an initiative in memory of Quentin Jones, the founder of BTG who passed suddenly in 2025.