Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights, SPLC File Brief in Support of Grant Program for Black-Owned Businesses

WASHINGTON AND MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Yesterday, the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), 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’ Committee and SPLC were joined in their brief by Asian Americans Advancing Justice and the Hispanic National Bar Association. 

The lawsuit from America First Legal, a group formed by former Trump advisor Stephen Miller, follows another recent case 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.

“At a time when systemic racism continues to pervade the venture capital industry, Stephen Miller’s latest legal crusade is a transparent ploy to fundraise at the expense of Black entrepreneurs simply trying to grow their small businesses,” said Katy Youker, Director for the Economic Justice Project with the Lawyers’ Committee. “We refuse to sit back and let them stifle meaningful efforts to change the status quo by advancing equity and empowering underrepresented voices.”

“This 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,” said Leslie Faith Jones, Senior Staff Attorney with the Southern Poverty Law Center. “We will not simply watch as agents for change are discouraged from building a more equitable society – we will continue working to achieve the promise of civil rights for all.”