The Rhode Island Black Business Association and attorneys from the Lawyers for Civil Rights legal firm recently released a public letter accusing Rhode Island of violating a federal law dedicated to protecting Black-owned businesses.
Addressed to Gov. Daniel J. McKee and other state officials, the Rhode Island Black Business Association, otherwise known as RIBBA, and the Lawyers for Civil Rights highlighted Rhode Island’s inability to provide equality for all business owners.
Urging the leaders to take action as soon as possible, the two groups specifically are accusing the state of violating federal anti-discrimination laws by excluding Black American and other BIPOC business owners from their contracting laws.
According to the Litigation Fellow at Lawyers for Civil Rights,Tasheena Davis, while officials have allocated $900 million in awards to construction orders, only two percent have gone towards BIPOC-owned businesses overall. Meanwhile, white men who own businesses have received about 94% of the funds.
As part of the letter, the leaders of RIBBA and the Lawyers for Civil Rights referred to a 2021 disparity study released on the state’s practices. According to the study, unequal measures were practiced by the state as Black Americans and Hispanic Americans received only 4.36% and 0.90% of the state’s subcontractor funds, respectively.
“Black and Brown businesses have been overlooked and underutilized in this state for far too long,” said the President & CEO of RIBBA Lisa Ranglin, per a public statement. “We will continue to fight for these businesses to have opportunities to participate and to call out Rhode Island officials who fail to make that a reality.”
In their letter, RIBBA and the Lawyers for Civil Rights accused the state of violating Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 specifically. Title VI of the law decrees that no one should be discriminated against based on race, color or national origin when it comes to receiving funds from the federal government.
As part of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, it was set into law during the Civil Rights Movement. Passed one year after Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his influential “I Have A Dream” speech in D.C., the act was lobbied by the coalition, Leadership Conference on Civil Rights., which was led by lawyers Joseph L. Rauh Jr. and Clarence Mitchell Jr..
Although the act was proposed first in 1963 by sitting president John F. Kennedy, Pres. Lyndon B. Johnson eventually signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 into law on July 2, 1964 following an attempt at a Senate filibuster.
By underfunding BIPOC-owned businesses, Rhode Island is violating this law, according to RIBBA and the Lawyers for Civil Rights.
“Rhode Island has had ample time to implement changes to reduce the disparities in state contracting for minority-owned businesses,” said David per a statement. “Federal law does not permit the continued systematic exclusion of minority-owned businesses.”
With a spokesperson for the governor maintaining that “significant steps” are being taken, RIBBA and the Lawyers for Civil Rights are now planning to meet with the state’s attorney on the issues discussed in the letter.
