Fearless Fund Barred From Providing Grant Funding To Black Women Entrepreneurs
Fearless Fund has been barred temporarily from providing funding to Black entrepreneurs.
As AFROTECH™ previously reported, the venture capital fund had been sued by Edward Blum and his American Alliance for Equal Rights group in August 2023 for “explicit racial exclusion” by creating a grant program dedicated solely to Black women, The Washington Post shares.
Initially, U.S. District Judge Thomas W. Thrash had ruled in favor of Fearless Fund, but the verdict was blocked by a panel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit on Sept. 30, 2023.
Fearless Fund, looking to retract the verdict, filed to appeal the September ruling.
Fearless Fund Co-Founder and CEO Arian Simone told CNN:
“I am shattered for every girl of color who has a dream but will grow up in a nation determined not to give her a shot to live it. On their behalf, we will turn the pain into purpose and fight with all our might.”
She added, “America is supposed to be a nation where one has the freedom to achieve, the freedom to earn, and the freedom to prosper. Yet, when we have attempted to level the playing field for underrepresented groups, our freedoms were stifled.”
Fearless Fund Co-Founder and General Partner Ayana Parsons commented via Linkedin: “I am beyond disappointed with today’s ruling by the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in the American Alliance for Equal Rights’ (AAER) versus Fearless federal court case. The court’s decision against Fearless Fund and the Fearless Foundation is a setback for women of color and all marginalized communities.”
Looking ahead, Fearless Fund and its legal team are weighing their options.
“This is the first court decision in the 150+ year history of the post-Civil War civil rights law that has halted private charitable support for any racial or ethnic group,” Jason Schwartz, a lawyer with Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, which is representing the Fearless Fund, said in a statement emailed to The Washington Post. “The dissenting judge, the district court and other courts have agreed with us that these types of claims should not prevail.”
