Lawyers鈥� Committee for Civil Rights, 人兽性交 File Brief in Support of Grant Program for Black-Owned Businesses
Underlying lawsuit from Stephen Miller-backed America First Legal targets 鈥楬ello Alice鈥� for work combating racial funding disparities via grant awards to Black-owned small businesses
WASHINGTON AND MONTGOMERY, Ala. 鈥斅燳esterday, and the Southern Poverty Law Center (人兽性交), along with the pro bono law firm Crowell Moring LLP, jointly filed an amicus brief in support of Hello Alice, a platform helping to deliver equitable capital to entrepreneurs, in a lawsuit brought by a conservative legal advocacy group alleging a grant program for Black-owned small businesses infringed on the civil rights of non-Black business owners. The underlying program, a partnership between Hello Alice and Progressive Insurance Company, awarded 10 grants to Black-owned small businesses in recognition of the persistent and systemic barriers facing minority-owned businesses attempting to secure capital investments. The Lawyers鈥� Committee and 人兽性交 were joined in their brief by 聽and the .听
The lawsuit from America First Legal, a group formed by former Trump advisor Stephen Miller, follows another brought by American Alliance for Equal Rights against Fearless Fund LLC, a venture capital firm similarly operating a grant program designed to address funding gaps for women of color entrepreneurs. Black-owned small businesses have long struggled to attract investments amid well-documented discrimination in the industry in the U.S. venture capital market.
鈥淎t a time when systemic racism continues to pervade the venture capital industry, Stephen Miller鈥檚 latest legal crusade is a transparent ploy to fundraise at the expense of Black entrepreneurs simply trying to grow their small businesses,鈥� said Katy Youker, Director for the Economic Justice Project with the Lawyers鈥� Committee. 鈥淲e refuse to sit back and let them stifle meaningful efforts to change the status quo by advancing equity and empowering underrepresented voices.鈥�
鈥淭his litigation is nothing more than an attack on the efforts to undo our country's legacy of extreme economic inequality along racial lines, and it is as dangerous to Black entrepreneurs as it is antithetical to the goals of racial justice embedded in the Civil Rights Act of 1866,鈥� said Leslie Faith Jones, Senior Staff Attorney with the Southern Poverty Law Center. 鈥淲e will not simply watch as agents for change are discouraged from building a more equitable society 鈥� we will continue working to achieve the promise of civil rights for all.鈥澛�
