Each month, a dozen Louisiana residents get $1,000 in guaranteed income, thanks in part to a $1m donation by Deacon Leroy “Buck” Close and Gracie Close of South Carolina, descendants of a family that made much of its generational wealth from the labor of enslaved people.
The payments are part of a highly unique program, which launched last December, to address the ongoing impacts of America’s racist past and the present-day inequalities of its criminal justice system. The intiative stands out from a growing number of similar pilots by blending the ideas of universal basic income and reparations.
