A new federal complaint alleges that the George Floyd Memorial Scholarship at North Central University in Minnesota is discriminatory towards non-Black students.
Filed on Monday with the U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights, conservative group the Legal Insurrection Fund says that the fund, which was created in 2020 following the murder of George Floyd, violates Title VI of the Civil Rights Act.
University President Scott Hagan, Ph.D., said per a press release. “So, university presidents, let’s step up together.”
Passed in 1964, Title VI was passed during the civil rights movement to “prohibit discrimination on the basis of race, color and national origin in programs receiving federal financial assistance.”
The Civil Rights Act, of which Title VI was part of, was lobbied for by the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, particularly by Clarence Mitchell Jr. and Joseph L. Rauh Jr. of the NAACP.
With their last allegation, the conservative group claims that the scholarship is discriminatory because it automatically disqualifies white, Hispanic or Asian students.
Announced at a memorial service for George Floyd on June 4, 2020, the scholarship was created specifically to help Black American students with financial funds to attend college.
According to NCU, a minimum of 12 other higher learning institutions have followed their lead to help Black students with scholarships.
The creation of scholarship funds for Black students came just a year after the Department of Education released a report that showed that, between the 2015 and 2016 school year, they received less financial aid.
According to the report, during this time, only 43.4% of Black students received fiancial aid compared to 46% of white students and 46.3% of Hispanic students.
Previous reports by outlets such as the Washington Post have also found that, when it came to strictly merit scholarships, particularly in the South, those in charge of distributing the scholarships discriminated against those who received them.
According to the 2022 report, in Louisiana, almost 75% of those who received assistance from merit scholarship Taylor Opportunity Program for Students were white.
Meanwhile, in Georgia, Black students were amongst those least likely to receive this type of scholarship and had less of a chance of having their tuition fully paid by scholarship programs.
When it came to scholarships such as the Zell Miller Scholarship, only 6% of recipients were Black compared to the 70% of white students who were given the financial assistance.
Through scholarships such as the George Floyd Memorial Scholarship, leaders are trying to address the gap.
“It is time to invest like never before in a new generation of young Black Americans who are poised and ready to take leadership in our nation,” said North Central.
