What happened
In 2023, Edward Blum’s American Alliance for Equal Rights sued Fearless Fund over the Strivers Grant Contest. AP described that contest as providing $20,000 to businesses majority-owned by Black women. The suit alleged a violation of 42 U.S.C. § 1981, the 1866 contracting statute. On June 3, 2024, a 2-1 11th Circuit panel in No. 23-13138 held that the plaintiffs were likely to succeed on that claim and supported a preliminary injunction. That is a likelihood-of-success holding for interim relief, not a final trial verdict. Judge Robin Rosenbaum dissented.
AP reported that Fearless later settled and closed the grant contest. NPR dated that announcement September 11, 2024. Blum said race-exclusive programs like Fearless Fund’s are divisive and illegal. AP reported he had urged Fearless to open the contest to women of other races rather than shut it. Fearless ended the Black-women program instead. Civil-rights lawyer Ben Crump, representing Fearless, told AP the settlement avoided a Supreme Court ruling; that is his statement about strategy, not a finding that the grant was lawful.
The Cookout read
Concern. This file is not gossip about a pundit. It is a dated record of a Black-women business grant being taken off the table through §1981 litigation. Blum’s own words are that race-exclusive programs should be stopped. Do not relabel that as a contribution to Black communities. The 11th Circuit spoke in the language of a preliminary injunction. The later deal dropped the grant.