The Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) has 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 announced Tuesday.
The program, known as the Capacity Strengthening Initiative, 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." The DOJ alleged that the program also prioritized allocating a higher proportion of grants to "Black or African American" and "nonwhite Latino(a)" communities.
Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, Harmeet K. Dhillon, stated that the race-based criteria violated 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 "The Department appreciates that the State of Minnesota has recognized this foundational principle and has repealed the statute governing the program."
MDH suspended the grant program after the DOJ initiated a review based on Title VI of the Civil Rights Act. This title prohibits any recipient of federal financial assistance, including MDH, from discriminating on the basis of race, color, or national origin.
A 2023 summary of the Capacity Strengthening Grant from a third-party portal described its design as aiming "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."