Buttigieg puts forth ‘Douglass Plan’ to improve black American prosperity

Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg on Tuesday outlined his plan to increase economic prosperity in black communities. 

Buttigieg proposed reforming credit scoring and increasing access to credit in a Charleston Chronicle op-ed. He also pledged to increase the federal government’s contracting with minority-owned firms to 25 percent. The South Bend, Ind., mayor named his plan the “Douglass Plan for Black America” named for abolitionist Frederick Douglass. 

{mosads}Buttigieg also proposed a modern Voting Rights Act that would ban voter ID laws and require potentially discriminatory voting law changes to be reviewed by the Justice Department. 

“Replacing racist policies with neutral ones will not be enough to deliver equality,” he wrote. “We must actively work to reverse these harms, which is why I propose that we invest in equity with a plan as bold as the Marshall Plan.”

The 2020 candidate noted in the op-ed that he will “have a lot more to say about these policies in the coming weeks.”

Buttigieg has polled poorly among black voters in South Carolina, receiving zero percent support in one poll from last month. 

The mayor is among two dozen people vying for the 2020 Democratic nomination.