US Court Halts Minority Grant Programme at Centre of Legal Challenge

A US federal court docket has ordered The Fearless Fund, an Atlanta-based enterprise capital agency that invests in minority-owned manufacturers to pause purposes for its grants amid a legal battle with a conservative group that opposes race-based programmes.

The fund, which has invested in magnificence manufacturers Bread Magnificence, Brown Lady Jane and The Lip Bar amongst others, was sued in August for racial discrimination by American Alliance for Equal Rights, a gaggle headed by Edward Blum, the conservative activist who efficiently challenged race-based school admissions within the US Supreme Courtroom.

The order quickly blocked the fund from deciding on a winner for its Strivers Grant Contest, a Mastercard-backed occasion that awards $20,000 small enterprise grants to Black ladies 4 instances a 12 months, pending the result of the lawsuit, which is being heard in federal court docket in Georgia.

In its swimsuit, filed in August, the American Alliance for Equal Rights had claimed the programme violates the Civil Rights Act of 1866 as a result of solely Black ladies are eligible for the award.

The litigation stoked fears amongst variety advocates, minority founders and different leaders throughout style and different industries that corporate diversity efforts had been the following goal following the Supreme Courtroom’s June resolution putting down affirmative motion programmes in larger training.

Danika Berry, a magnificence entrepreneur and public relations advisor who has labored with Mielle Organics’ Monique Rodriguez and Janell Stephens of Camille Rose, amongst different founders, described Blum’s focusing on of Fearless Fund as a “crucial second within the struggle for variety and inclusivity inside the magnificence sector.”

“I’ve witnessed the unimaginable expertise and potential of those [Black women] entrepreneurs,” she wrote in August. “It deeply troubles me to see the obstacles they face in accessing funding on par with their counterparts within the trade.”