Riverside
Bank of America has awarded $100,000 to the Civil Rights Institute of Inland Southern California (Institute).
The bank’s Market President for the Inland Empire, Al Arguello, presented the grant to Q’Vinc Asberry, of the Institute’s Board at Tuesday’s meeting of the Riverside City Council.
The Institute will protect and advance civil rights in the area and recognize past achievements of regional, statewide, and national significance.
One of the Institute’s three major facilities will be named the Bank of America Diversity Center in honor of the gift. Other naming opportunities remain for the Institute’s public events plaza, exhibit center, and incubator space for non-profits engaged in civil rights.
“We’re honored to partner with the Fair Housing Council and the Civil Rights Institute of Inland Southern California in making this leadership pledge to advance economic development in downtown Riverside. . . especially in preserving important civil rights history of the region,” said Arguello.
“Bank of America has demonstrated its leadership in Inland Southern California by underwriting the Institute with this important gift,” Asberry responded. “I am honored to accept on behalf of the Civil Rights Institute, and pleased to be able to predict that the Bank of America Diversity Center will be an important center for our region-wide efforts to grow and nourish the civil rights we all depend on.”
The Institute is on its way to raising the first one million dollars of its two-million-dollars, two-year capital goal necessary for the project to proceed.
When the Institute opens in April 2020, it will be one of the cornerstones of Mission Heritage Plaza, a new mixed-use project that will contain offices for the Fair Housing Council and affordable housing units, including some for area’s military veterans.