Atlanta businesses backed Martin Luther King, Jr.'s civil rights movement in the '60s. Here's how companies can support racial equality today, according to his son.

• An Atlanta business leader used his influence to honor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., after he won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1963, providing a roadmap for businesses looking for ways to fight for racial justice today.
• Dr. King's oldest son, Martin Luther King, III, urges businesses today to pressure both their peers and public entities like law enforcement to support black communities.
• The United States is facing a national reckoning over racism, as cities across the country erupt in protests following the recent deaths of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and Breonna Taylor.

During moments of historic unrest, businesses can yield an immense amount of power. From financial support to company culture, many organizations are trying to navigate how to best support the black community and ongoing protests.

But, as Martin Luther King, III told Business Insider, there's strong precedent for how businesses can step up. Just look at Coca-Cola in 1964.

In 1964, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. won the Nobel Peace Prize

At the prize's presentation in Oslo, the Nobel Committee's chairman said of King: "He is the first to make the message of brotherly love a reality in the course of his struggle, and he has brought this message to all men, to all nations and races."

According to WNYC, King donated his prize money — around $54,000 — to several civil rights organizations.

Six days after his return from Oslo, King was honored by the city of New York. He received the city's Medallion of Honor, and over 8,000 people — including Gov. Nelson Rockefeller — came to see him in Harlem that night.

But in King's hometown of Atlanta, business owners were more reluctant to honor him at the same scale

King III told Business Insider that "Atlanta was trying to move slow." According to Jim Burress at NPR, invitations for an integrated dinner celebrating King Jr.'s prize win had gone out to Atlanta elites.

"The businesspeople were not buying up tickets," King III said. "They were not going to show up. And again, it was fear — we were still a divided nation, we were just getting ready to get a Civil Rights Act. Birmingham in '63 had been explosive. The churches had been bombed in '63, and people were just nervous and afraid."

Atlanta's mayor approached Robert Woodruff, the former president of Coca-Cola, and asked him to intervene

Woodruff became president of Coca-Cola in 1923, and helped the company establish an international presence. While Woodruff was no longer president of Coca-Cola in 1964, he still wielded outsized influence in the Atlanta business community, and it was he who Mayor Ivan Allen Jr. turned to for help organizing a local commemoration of their Nobel winner.

As NPR reports, Woodruff turned to Coca-Cola's CEO, J. Paul Austin, and asked him to step in.

"So, you know, Coca-Cola basically said, the leadership said, 'If you guys don't come out, we got to move Coca-Cola out of Atlanta,'" King III said. "And guess what happened? The business leaders showed up."

In fact, the event sold out, with almost 1,600 attendees.

"This marvelous hometown welcome and honor will remain dear to me as long as the chords of memory shall lengthen," King Jr. said in his speech at the event, according to NPR.

Coca-Cola's actions show how businesses can step up to make a change

King III points to Coca-Cola as just one example of how business can effectively utilize its pull — and that's something it should be considering right now.

"All I'm saying is that businesses can do more," King III said. "I'm not saying that they are not doing anything."

And businesses can call upon public entities — like law enforcement — to change what they're doing and how they're treating the communities they work within.

"Business can influence a lot of things," King III said. "Basically stating that, 'Okay, we want you to protect and serve as our police officers, which is what you do as a police department. But we also want to operate in a way that is humane.'"