American Alliance for Equal Rights and Defending Education File Suit Against Congressional Black Caucus Foundation over Racially Discriminatory Scholarships

On June 3, 2026, the American Alliance for Equal Rights (AAER) and Defending Education (DE) filed suit against the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation for violations of 42 U.S.C. § 1981 arising from racially discriminatory contracts. 

The CBC Foundation is a nonprofit “educational institute” founded in 1976. The Foundation offers “scholarship opportunities” to students nationwide. Nearly a dozen of those scholarships explicitly discriminate based on race, including the CBC Spouses Education Scholarship. That scholarship awards lucrative sums, but only to students who are “African American and Black.” Even for black students, the Foundation requires applicants to live or study in a district or state represented by a member of the Congressional Black Caucus. Racial gerrymandering is plainly illegal when sorting voters on a legislative map, and it is no less illegal when affording educational opportunities to young people. 

The CBC Foundation’s institutional partner, the Congressional Black Caucus, calls itself the “Conscience of the Congress.” But racial discrimination is unconscionable. And awarding educational opportunities to some young constituents but not others—based on the color of their skin—is neither conscientious nor legal. AAER and DE have members barred from applying for these scholarships solely because of their skin color. That is an outcome the Constitution cannot, and will not, countenance. 

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