Director of Arkansas’ Minority Health Commission Sued by Right-Wing Group Over Scholarship

A Virginia-based organization affiliated with right-wing ideologies has filed a lawsuit against the executive director of the Minority Health Commission in Arkansas, Kenya Eddings.

One of Eddings’ responsibilities is managing the Minority Healthcare Workforce Diversity Scholarship which is awarded to racial minorities who are “African American, Hispanic, Native American/American Indian, Asian American or Marshallese.”

The lawsuit filed by Do No Harm alleges the scholarship is blatantly illegal, leaning on the 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause. The group is asking for an injunction.

The Board Chair of Do No Harm, Dr. Stanley Goldfarb, said, “The Arkansas Minority Health Commission is illegally excluding and discriminating against certain medical students and denying them opportunities based on their race, color, or nation origin – the scholarship should be declared unconstitutional and promptly enjoined.”

Eddings is a well-known health care professional in Arkansas, appointed by former Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson to a task force created to address food deserts in the Little Rock area.

Arkansas’ new governor, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, is a rising star in the Republican party due, in part, to her work as press secretary for former President Donald Trump. But Sanders has taken political stances popular among conservative Republicans. For example, on her first day in office, Sanders signed an executive order making it illegal to teach Critical Race Theory in schools.

Eddings and the Minority Health Commission have not responded to the lawsuit.