The Magnolia Mothers Trust

The Magnolia Mother’s Trust is now the longest-running guaranteed income program in the United States. But the program, which gives Black mothers in Jackson, Mississippi, $1,000 a month for one year, no strings attached, was never meant to last forever. 

The COVID-19 pandemic and resulting economic crisis have cemented an American truth
that’s been ignored for too long by too many: Through its policy and political choices, the
US continues to prioritize the interests of a wealthy, predominantly white few over the
well-being of all its people, but especially over the protection of Black and brown lives.

The expanded Child Tax Credit also marked a bigger shift in American social policy: It was one of the first new programs in decades to provide Americans a government allowance in cash with virtually no strings attached.

In 2020 alone, officials in the Mississippi state government spent over $94 million in federal welfare funds considered by state audit to “suspect spending.” “What good could have been done in Mississippi with this $94 million? How many families could’ve been impacted?” said Aisha Nyandoro.