NAACP, Children’s Advocacy Group Sue the State of Minnesota for Alleged Welfare Discrimination

The Minneapolis branch of the NAACP and advocacy group Children’s Rights have filed a lawsuit alleging the state of Minnesota and its child protection agencies and officials have discriminated on the basis of race against Black families in Minnesota, particularly in Hennepin and Ramsey counties.

The lawsuit argues the discrimination is evident in the “historic, pervasive, and ongoing overrepresentation of Black families in Minnesota’s child welfare system” and that the state has a pattern and practice of using federal funds to discriminatorily surveil and separate Black families, specifically in Hennepin and Ramsey counties.

“Minnesota has engaged in a long-standing pattern and practice of intrusive interventions, causing prolonged and often permanent separation and inflicting immediate and long-term harm,” the suit states. “The consequences of these patterns and practices in Minnesota’s child welfare system have been disastrous and disproportionately suffered by Minnesota’s Black and low income population, leading to significant adverse and discriminatory effects on the basis of race that are without any legitimate justification.”

Read the source article at The Hill