Why FRFT and AFLF Are Requesting a Verified Freedmen Scholarship Category on Scholarships.com

The Freedmen Reparations Fund Trust and the American Freedmen Legal Fund are moving forward with a formal request to Scholarships.com asking that Verified Freedmen / American Freedmen be added as a recognized scholarship category.

This request is not an attack on private scholarships. It is not an attack on students. It is not an attack on any community receiving educational support.

This is about lawful consistency, status-based recognition, and the continued erasure of American Freedmen from systems that already recognize many other group-specific categories.

Scholarships.com currently organizes scholarship opportunities by many inclusion and identity-based categories, including Race, Ethnicity, Gender, Religion, Military Affiliation, Physical Disabilities, Financial Need, Academic Major, Residence State, School Year, Student Type, Disability Status, First-Generation Status, LGBTQ+ identity, Native American identity, Hispanic and Latino heritage, Asian and Pacific Islander heritage, African American identity, women-specific scholarships, veterans and military family scholarships, faith-based scholarships, and other special-status categories.

That raises a basic question:

If scholarship platforms can recognize race, ethnicity, gender, religion, disability, military affiliation, geography, heritage, ancestry, first-generation status, and other group-specific categories, why are Verified Freedmen not recognized as a distinct historical and status-based category?

FRFT and AFLF believe this question must be asked formally and professionally.

What We Are Requesting

FRFT and AFLF are requesting that Scholarships.com add a Verified Freedmen / American Freedmen scholarship category to its directory and matching system.

Verified Freedmen status is not a broad racial preference. It is a documented, historically specific status tied to U.S. slavery, Reconstruction exclusion, educational deprivation, land loss, labor theft, public-policy harm, and generational economic displacement.

This is why FRFT has developed a verification framework.

Our request is simple:

Recognize Verified Freedmen as a legitimate status-based scholarship category.

Allow scholarship sponsors who wish to support Verified Freedmen students to be properly searchable.

Give students, families, institutions, and scholarship sponsors a lawful way to identify educational opportunities tied to the historical injury of American Freedmen.

Student Verification Is Already Available

FRFT has already created a verification pathway specifically for students.

On FreedmenNation.org, students seeking scholarship opportunities can select Public Freedmen Verification – Students Only as part of the verification process. This allows students to submit family tree records, census records, and supporting documentation so their status can be reviewed without requiring them to enter the private membership verification option.

This matters because our request to Scholarships.com is not abstract. FRFT already has a working student verification option that can support scholarship eligibility, scholarship sponsor review, and future educational opportunity pathways.

Students who need verification for scholarship purposes can begin the process at FreedmenNation.org by selecting the student verification option and uploading the required documentation.

That means Scholarships.com does not have to create the verification system. FRFT has already built the status-review pathway. We are asking Scholarships.com to recognize the category so Verified Freedmen students can be properly identified, matched, and supported through lawful scholarship opportunities.

Why Many People Are Not Yet Aware of Verified Freedmen

Many people are not yet familiar with the term Verified Freedmen because the category was developed through the Freedmen Reparations Fund Trust’s verification framework.

For generations, American Freedmen have been mislabeled, merged into broad racial categories, or described through terms that do not properly identify our specific historical status. That is why FRFT developed a verification process: to create a documented, reviewable, status-based pathway that identifies American Freedmen through records, family history, census evidence, and supporting documentation.

Verified Freedmen is not simply a public label. It is a status that comes through review.

This is important for scholarship platforms because many scholarship systems rely on broad categories such as Black, African American, minority, diversity, race, or ethnicity. Those terms do not properly distinguish the historical class of American Freedmen from other populations.

FRFT’s verification framework gives scholarship platforms, sponsors, and students a clearer way to recognize the specific educational equity interest of American Freedmen without relying only on broad racial language.

That is why the request to Scholarships.com is also educational. We are not assuming the platform already understands Verified Freedmen. We are formally introducing the category, explaining the verification pathway, and asking for equal recognition within a system that already recognizes many other inclusion categories.

Why This Matters

For years, American Freedmen have been placed under broad racial labels that dilute our specific historical claim.

“Black” does not identify the legal, historical, or political injury tied to U.S. slavery and Reconstruction.

“Minority” does not identify the class of people whose ancestors built this nation through unpaid labor and were then subjected to Black Codes, sharecropping abuse, land theft, convict leasing, discriminatory lending, school exclusion, and public-policy deprivation.

“Diversity” does not identify the successors of American slavery.

“African American” is often used broadly and inconsistently, but it does not properly distinguish Verified Freedmen from other populations, immigrants, ethnic groups, or broad racial categories.

This is why status matters.

Verified Freedmen are not asking to be folded into vague racial categories. We are asking to be recognized as a documented American historical class with a direct educational equity interest.

The Inclusion Problem

Scholarship platforms already recognize many kinds of inclusion categories.

They recognize categories connected to race.

They recognize categories connected to ethnicity.

They recognize categories connected to gender.

They recognize categories connected to religion.

They recognize categories connected to disability.

They recognize categories connected to military service.

They recognize categories connected to immigration, heritage, geography, family status, financial need, field of study, and student background.

But Verified Freedmen are often missing.

That omission matters because American Freedmen are not a vague diversity group. We are a historically specific people whose status is tied to U.S. slavery, emancipation, Reconstruction, land deprivation, educational exclusion, political suppression, labor theft, and government policy failures.

If inclusion categories exist for many other groups, then Verified Freedmen must not be excluded from recognition.

The Legal and Compliance Issue

FRFT and AFLF are also reviewing the larger scholarship landscape because many scholarship systems openly organize opportunities by protected or sensitive categories such as race, ethnicity, ancestry, gender, religion, disability, and heritage.

Some private scholarship giving may be lawful depending on how it is funded, administered, and structured. But when scholarships are connected to federally funded schools, public institutions, universities, or government-supported programs, civil rights compliance becomes a serious issue.

That is why our position is careful:

We do not oppose lawful private giving.

We do not oppose targeted educational support.

We do not oppose scholarships designed to address documented hardship or historical exclusion.

But we do believe scholarship platforms and educational institutions must be consistent. If group-specific inclusion categories are recognized, Verified Freedmen cannot continue to be erased.

What Happens Next

FRFT and AFLF are submitting a formal category-recognition proposal to Scholarships.com.

We are asking them to:

1. Add Verified Freedmen / American Freedmen as a scholarship category.

2. Clarify the process for adding new scholarship categories.

3. Confirm whether scholarships tied to race, ethnicity, ancestry, gender, religion, disability, heritage, or other classifications are reviewed for compliance when connected to federally funded institutions.

4. Allow scholarship sponsors to submit Verified Freedmen-focused scholarships.

5. Provide a written determination if the request is denied.

If Scholarships.com approves the request, this will open the door for a lawful, status-based scholarship pathway for Verified Freedmen.

If the request is denied or ignored, FRFT and AFLF will preserve that response as part of a broader record showing that Verified Freedmen requested equal category recognition from a platform that already recognizes many group-specific classifications.

Our Position

The American Freedmen Legal Fund and the Freedmen Reparations Fund Trust are not asking for special treatment.

We are asking for equal recognition.

We are asking scholarship platforms to stop burying American Freedmen under broad racial language.

We are asking for a lawful, status-based framework that reflects the specific history of American Freedmen and the continuing educational impact of that history.

Verified Freedmen deserve recognition in scholarship systems.

American Freedmen deserve scholarship pathways that name us correctly.

If scholarship platforms can make room for race, ethnicity, gender, religion, disability, heritage, military affiliation, geography, and other inclusion categories, then they can make room for Verified Freedmen.

FRFT already provides a Public Freedmen Verification – Students Only option for students seeking scholarship-related verification, making the requested Scholarships.com category practical, reviewable, and immediately usable.

FRFT and AFLF will continue to document, request, follow up, and escalate where necessary.

Start Status Verification at

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