The Black US author and journalist Ta-Nehisi Coates and individual partners and foundations are creating a new fund to combat sexual violence, especially against Black women and girls, with a planned budget of $10 million for education and healing programs over the next two years. The Ford Foundation announced a $1 million donation to the effort on December 13, 2023. Other partners include the singer John Legend and Sacramento Kings basketball player Harrison Barnes, and the non-profit groups Long Walk Home and A Call to Men. Coates says he was inspired to create this fund after the 2021 court testimony of victims of sexual violence perpetrated by the singer R. Kelly, who has been found guilty and sentenced to 30 years in prison for sex trafficking.
Compiled from: Kay Dervishi, "Ta-Nehisi Coates spearheads new fund combatting sexual violence," Associated Press, Jan. 8, 2024.