Racial Equity

Our final grants to promote racial equity aim to dismantle anti-black racism. Our goal is to ensure that all people in the United States and South Africa—two countries with deep and enduring legacies of racial exclusion and discrimination—have a fair chance at success.

In 2016, Atlantic—in partnership with Columbia University and the Nelson Mandela Foundation—launched the Atlantic Fellows for Racial Equity. Over the next decade, the program will build an enduring transnational network of leaders across issues, approaches, and geographies to challenge anti-Black racism and build the institutions, policies and narratives for a more equitable future.

South Africa and the United States are connected by a shared history of power structures exploiting people based on their race, gender, class and ability. Over the last two centuries, activists working for Black liberation in these two countries have learned from and inspired each other to build movements that organize people to achieve full equality.

The Atlantic Fellows for Racial Equity builds upon—and reinvigorates—this history of exchange by creating a space for leaders from both countries to come together to explore, imagine, experiment and build long-term solutions for impactful change. The program culminates the Atlantic Philanthropies’ funding in South Africa and the United States and its deep historical commitment to advancing equity in these countries.

Banner photo: Asanda Benya and Stha Yeni, Atlantic Fellows for Racial Equity. Photo: Susan Wilcox.