Ashville has a reputation of being the most “woke” and left-wing part of the Appalachian region. The city just launched the Office of Equity & Inclusion, which will carry out a Reparations Commission.
In October 2020 and April 2021, Ashville City Council approved two donation agreements to the Asheville City Schools Foundation to establish scholarships. The scholarships are supposed to benefit children who do not have a parent who obtained a higher degree than a High School diploma. However, the Ashville City School Foundation planned to give Black applicants preferential treatment over Whites.
On October 19th, WNC Citizens for Equality, Inc. filed a federal lawsuit against Asheville, Ashville City Manager Debra Campbell, The Asheville City Schools Foundation, and the Foundation’s executive director Copland Rudolph.
City Council has agreed to prohibit race-based preference when awarding the scholarships.
Agreement from the City of Ashville:
Paragraph 1 shall be amended to replace the second and third sentences of Paragraph 1 with the following sentences: “The first is for a scholarship to be awarded in perpetuity to high school students within Asheville City Schools, based on the following criteria: In addition to the criteria set forth for all ACSF scholarships, the scholarship will give preference to applicants whose household members, including parents and/or guardians have a high school education or less, these applicants representing “first generation” college students. Additionally preference will be given to applicants who are committed to pursuing a career in education. The second is for a scholarship fund for educators and staff of Asheville City Schools who are pursuing their next level of education and/or certification, with a preference for applicants who are or were “first generation” college students.”
Paragraph 10 in each agreement shall be amended to add the following text: “ACSF shall be prohibited from discriminating based on any of the following characteristics of any applicant for award of the scholarships that are the subject of this Donation Agreement, whether the scholarship be for students of Asheville High School or employees of Asheville City Schools: race, natural hair or hairstyles, ethnicity, creed, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin or ancestry, marital or familiar status, pregnancy, veteran status, religious belief or non-belief, age or disability.”
“This federal lawsuit and the resulting remarkable settlement should serve as a wakeup call to those activists and allied politicians pushing the extremist leftist agenda to segregate and discriminate based on race.” – Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton.
