The uprisings that followed the killing of George Floyd brought renewed attention — and new donations — to organizations that focus on racial justice and overhauling criminal justice. Now those groups are looking to make even greater headway under the Biden administration.
The American Civil Liberties Union is placing special emphasis on racial justice this year. Ronald Newman, the ACLU’s national political director, says securing broadband internet access for low-income residents is one issue that may actually get bipartisan support in a divided Congress. Low-income urban neighborhoods — often predominantly African American — suffer from inadequate access, just as many low-income rural neighborhoods do. Inadequate internet speeds can affect work, schooling, and obtaining critical information about the pandemic, Newman says.
“You can see the landing space for potential bipartisan progress,” he says.
He also hopes to see Biden take action to help close the racial wealth gap. In November, Biden said he supported canceling $10,000 worth of student debt, but progressives are pushing for the cancellation of all student debt. That would help close the racial wealth gap since Black people are far more likely than whites to be behind on student-loan payments.
As President Trump pointed out during the debates, Biden has a mixed track record on racial and criminal justice — he supported a 1994 crime law that led to mass incarceration in the 1990s.
“Both Biden and [Vice President-elect] Kamala Harris have things in their background that cause people who look at this work closely to question where they’re coming from,” says Ann Jacobs, executive director of the Institute for Justice and Opportunity at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. “They are among a large group of people who now say, ‘We got this wrong.’ They’re going to need to be pushed to do things that might not flow easily from their lips or their pens.”
Philanthropy has played an important role in supporting advocacy that has reduced the prison population over the past decade, Jacobs says. The current fashion of supporting grassroots groups led by people of color is a positive step, she says, but foundations need to continue to support existing programs, like her institute, that serve large numbers of people — especially during this economic downturn when government contracts are being cut back. The Institute for Justice and Opportunity engages in advocacy to eliminate barriers to housing and education for former prisoners and also uses the resources of its parent, the City University of New York, to educate about 1,000 students a year who are currently or have been incarcerated.
“We’re stronger as a large diversified community,” Jacobs says. “There needs to be some attention paid to sustaining all the components of this work long enough for the economy to bounce back.”
Vivian Nixon, executive director of College & Community Fellowship, a New York City program that helps women recently released from prison earn college degrees, wants to see the federal government again allow prisoners to receive Pell Grants. Biden wants to reinstate Pell eligibility for formerly incarcerated people, but he has not said whether he would like to make current prisoners Pell eligible.
Nixon acknowledges that President Trump has helped boost fundraising for groups like hers, but she thinks foundations and other donors will keep up their support during the Biden administration as they realize that additional policy and regulatory changes are possible.
“There’s a sense of urgency that will cause people to hang in there,” she says.
