Black community leaders gathered at the State Capitol on Wednesday to ask legislators for $75 million to create a capital fund for black-owned business start-ups.
The proposal is the centerpiece of a broader $100 million "United Black Legislative Agenda" rolled out at a Capitol news conference by a coalition of community groups in response to recent evidence of widening racial economic disparities suffered by black Minnesotans, most notably a 13 percent drop in median income between 2013 and 2014 — a period where income rose for every other demographic group in the state.
"Access to capital is the number one impediment to African-American and other businesses of color," said Jeff Hassan, executive director of the African American Leadership Forum. "We also know business owners of color, including African-Americans, hire more people of color than other businesses. It therefore makes sense that we would promote that."
The event drew surprisingly strong turnout as a coalition of community leaders from groups that haven't always gotten along came together to map out their ideas for how best to improve the lives of black Minnesotans.
DFL Gov. Mark Dayton has proposed $100 million in state dollars to tackle racial economic disparities. The proposal unveiled Wednesday shares much with Dayton's outline, including $8 million for a summer jobs program in Minneapolis and St. Paul that would target young people of color. The coalition also asked for a series of policy changes, including a ban on grand juries in criminal proceedings and on privately owned prisons, changes to criminal sentencing and restoration of voting rights for felons who have served their time.
Despite Dayton's support, the coalition faces a tough push at the Capitol. Republicans who control the House are unlikely to support that level of spending, particularly given that most of it would be focused in Minneapolis and St. Paul, which are totally represented by DFLers.
"The GOP controls the agenda" in the House, said Rep. Raymond Dehn, DFL-Minneapolis. "It's not an excuse; it's just a fact."
Among the groups that collaborated on the proposal are the Minneapolis Urban League, Neighborhoods Organizing for Change, Black Lives Matter Minneapolis, representatives of Somali-Americans and the Council for Minnesotans of African Heritage.