*The first payments of a Guaranteed Monthly Income (GMI) program have been distributed to 12 victims of discrimination or police abuse.
According to the American Civil Liberties Union of Louisiana, the grantees include multiple women from the state who each received $1,000 payments as part of a program founded by Leroy and Gracie Close of South Carolina, descendants of a prominent slave-owning family who created a textile fortune, The UK Independent reports.
Leroy and Gracie’s $1M donation provides recurring cash assistance to survivors of law enforcement racism, according to the ACLU of Louisiana, a partner in the endeavor.
Americans who have suffered from racist policing, mass incarceration, and the criminalization of poverty are supported financially through the GMI program. As part of this first-of-its-kind initiative, families who have experienced police violence and harassment will receive $1,000-a-month payments for a year.
In a Newsweek op-ed about the project, the Closes acknowledge that their family continues to benefit from slavery.
“For 30 years, our great, great, great grandfather John Springs III would travel annually to Maryland or Virginia to purchase 40 human beings at a time, separating them from their families, and marching them South in chains and ropes,” they wrote.
“For us, the benefits of slavery have not ended. They are a very real part of our day-to-day lives. The institution of slavery allows us to have high incomes without having to work. It allows us the luxury of feeling secure in our lives,” the op-ed states.
“In contrast, the descendants of the people owned by our ancestors have had the opposite experience. Many experience poverty, and all experience structural racism, especially those in the South,” the Closes added.
The program is a part of the Louisiana ACLU’s Truth and Reconciliation Project, “a project studying ways to transfer wealth from descendants of enslavers to those oppressed by vestiges of slavery, per The Independent.
“The excitement around the program’s launch is truly infectious,” Melody Parker, Truth and Reconciliation project manager, said in a statement.
“Witnessing the transformative power it holds and the resilience it ignites within participants to continue dreaming is not just inspiring, but a testament to the importance of initiatives like this one that address historical harm through the radical redistribution of resources,” Parker added.
READ MORE: White Georgia Pastor Goes Viral with Sermon Justifying Slavery | WATCH
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