This upcoming fall, three states will participate in a once-in-a-lifetime lottery that will award descendants of the trans-Atlantic slave trade a $50,000 grant.
Community activists are pushing to get people to apply, claiming many don’t believe the grant is actually real.
A hundred residents living in Minnesota, North Dakota, or South Dakota will receive the grants from a $50 million fund called the “Open Road Fund,” established by the Minnesota-based nonprofit Bush Foundation founded by the late 3M executive Archibald Bush and administered by Nexus Communications.
The grants will not serve as a form of reparations, not according to Nexus, but should be viewed as “a step in the right direction towards cultivating wealth and prosperity” for Black residents.
In addition to living in the three states, applicants must be 14 years old or older and have applied for the lottery when the application is available on July 28.
“We’re assuming it’s going to be a pretty big pool of folks from Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota,” Danielle Mkali, senior director of Nexus Community Partners, said in an interview with KARE 11.
“We’ll take that and make sure those submissions look great, and then we’ve created a tool to randomize the selection, and we’ll select 100 folks from there,” the executive continued.
From 2023 to 2031, a computer lottery will randomly select 800 recipients who are descendants of victims of the Atlantic slave trade, including the Caribbean, North, Central, and South America, and those who were repatriated to Africa. One hundred recipients will be selected for a five-figure award for the next eight years.
The lottery winners will have complete freedom in utilizing their prize money. They may choose to purchase a home, invest in a business, or pay off their college debt, among other possibilities.
According to Jennifer Woodford, president of the Rochester (Minnesota) Area Foundation, many people are skeptical about the money because of years of systemic oppression and neglect, the Post Bulletin reported.
“Historically, members of our Black community have had the opposite treatment. They’ve been excluded rather than included,” Woodford said, adding, “This is a movement specifically designed to build resources for our Black community.”
Woodford said while “there are life-changing moments in nonprofits and in philanthropy every day,” she believes this effort is “incredible” because of its reach, hoping the people will take advantage of the application.
Black community leaders like Rochester’s the Rev. Andre Crockett say he will help spread the word, hoping to bolster his neighborhood’s chances of winning an award.
The preacher intends to host events to inform community members how to fill out the online application and plans to organize door-to-door campaigns where his team will hand out fliers.
“So, my objective is that the more individuals that we can get down here to apply, the better chance there’s someone down there to win. It doesn’t have to be me. We want somebody down here representing Rochester to win,” the founder of The Barbershop and Social Services said.
