The Southern Poverty Law Center is stepping in to defend a grant program for black-owned small businesses after a white business owner sued Progressive Insurance, alleging racial discrimination.
Left-wing groups, including the SPLC, filed an amicus brief supporting Hello Alice, a platform delivering grants to black entrepreneurs, and Progressive. Progressive and Hello Alice jointly awarded 10 grants of up to $25,000 each to black-owned small businesses in August, enabling them to purchase commercial vehicles.
Freedom Truck Dispatch owner Nathan Roberts filed a class-action lawsuit against Progressive that same month, calling the grant program “patently unlawful racial discrimination” and noting that he and others would consider applying for the grants if Progressive did not limit it to black recipients.
America First Legal, a nonprofit founded by one of former…
