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The
administration of President Joe Biden plans to announce a "major
milestone" in attempts to create a more equitable economy for
Black, Latino, Asian, Native and other communities of color at
the 2021 Freedman's Bank Forum, a Treasury spokesperson said.
The forum began in 2016 under then-Treasury Secretary Jack Lew
when he renamed the Treasury Annex building across from main
Treasury the "Freedman's Bank Building."
Abraham Lincoln created the Freedman's Savings and Trust Co
http://freedmansbank.org in 1865 for newly emancipated Black
Americans to safeguard their earnings, build financial security
and generate family wealth. The bank helped some 100,000 Black
people and institutions amass $57 million in savings and wealth,
and paved the way for today's minority depository institutions.
But the racial wealth gap persists. U.S. data shows the typical
white family has eight times the wealth of the typical Black
family and five times that of the typical Latino family.
At the forum, the Treasury department will map out its
strategies to direct capital to depository community development
financial institutions (CDFIs) and minority depository
institutions (MDIs) to support loans, grants, and forbearance
for minority-owned businesses and consumers in low-income
communities.
Harris and Yellen announced $1.25 billion in relief https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/jy0228funds
for 863 community development financial institutions at the
White House in June, with more funding to follow on Tuesday.
The funds are part of $12 billion earmarked for minority lending
as part of a $900 billion COVID-19 relief package passed by
Congress in December 2020 and led by then-Senator Harris.
John Hope Bryant, founder of Operation Hope, a non-profit group
that works to end poverty, welcomed Treasury's efforts as "a
step in the right direction," but said far more work was needed
to redress decades of inequality.
"This is one piece of the puzzle, but you need a real business
plan," said Bryant, who first proposed renaming the annex to
call attention to the unfinished work begun by Lincoln.
Increasing Black communities' access to capital would boost the
overall U.S. economy, he said, citing a Citigroup study which
estimates that discrimination against African Americans had
reduced U.S. economic output by $16 trillion since 2000.
The Treasury department also plans to highlight how its
programs, including an expanded child tax credit and emergency
rental assistance, have enabled a more equitable recovery, and
will unveil other steps to address racial inequity, the
spokesperson said.
(Reporting by Andrea Shalal; editing by Grant McCool)
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