Minnesota yanks race-based grant after DOJ initiated Civil Rights review, DOJ reveals

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Minnesota’s Department of Health (MDH) voluntarily suspended a grant program that was specifically based on race after the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) initiated a Civil Rights Act compliance review, the DOJ said in a Tuesday announcement.

The Capacity Strengthening Initiative, according to the DOJ, was a grant program which “limited eligible grantees to organizations that worked with ‘people of color,’ provided ‘strategic consideration’ and ‘gave priority’ to proposals from organizations ‘led by populations of color.'”

It also, the DOJ alleged, prioritized allocating a higher proportion of grants to “Black or African American” and “nonwhite Latino(a)” communities.

A 2023 summary of the Capacity Strengthening Grant from the third party Grant Portal described it as being designed “To support and strengthen the capacity of metro and rural community-based organizations and faith-based organizations serving people of color, American Indians, LGBTQIA+, and people living with disabilities.”

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The strict race-based language, Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division explained, was a violation of the Civil Rights Act.

“Recipients of federal dollars cannot decide who benefits from those funds on the basis of race, color, or national origin,” Dhillon said in a DOJ statement. “The Department appreciates that the State of Minnesota has recognized this foundational principle and has repealed the statute governing the program.”

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MDH withdrew the grant program after the DOJ initiated a review based on Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, the DOJ statement claimed. Title VI prohibits any recipient of Federal financial assistance – a group that includes MDH – from discriminating on the basis of race, color, or national origin.