FT. WORTH, Texas, April 2, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Today, the American Alliance for Equal Rights (AAER) filed a federal lawsuit in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia against the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, alleging the Foundation’s CBC Spouses Education Scholarship is an unlawful, race-based contracting program that violates 42 U.S.C. §1981, the Civil Rights Act of 1866.
The complaint is attached.
The Foundation openly restricts the scholarship to “African American and Black” students. The Foundation’s website, FAQs page, and promotional brochures state plainly that non-black applicants are ineligible. The Foundation has administered the program in this racially discriminatory manner every year since 1988, awarding over $11 million to date exclusively to black recipients.
The lawsuit also challenges a second eligibility requirement which requires that applicants must reside or attend school in a congressional district represented by a member of the Congressional Black Caucus. Because CBC membership is restricted to black members of congress, this geographic criterion operates as an additional racial proxy, further excluding non-black students from eligibility.
Section 1981 guarantees all persons “the equal right to make and enforce contracts without respect to race.” Because the program involves contracts and imposes rigid racial quotas, the scholarship is unlawful.
AAER has several student-members who are ineligible to apply for this scholarship because they are not black.
The Alliance seeks a declaratory judgment that the scholarship violates §1981, an injunction barring the Foundation from considering race in the program’s administration, and an order requiring the Foundation to reopen and rerun the application process under race-neutral criteria.
Edward Blum, president of AAER, said, “Racial discrimination is wrong no matter which group it favors or harms. A scholarship program that tells students they are ineligible because of their race, and the race of their representatives, violates one of our nation’s oldest civil rights laws.”
Blum added, “Members of Congress represent constituents of all races. So, all qualified students, regardless of their race, deserve the same opportunity to compete for this scholarship. It is to be hoped this lawsuit will ensure that outcome.”
Contact:
Edward Blum
EdwardJayBlum@gmail.com
View original content:SOURCE American Alliance for Equal Rights
