Title VI/Environmental Justice

Frequently Asked Questions

Q. What is Title VI?
A. Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 states that ”No person in the United States shall, on the grounds of race, color or national origin, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefit of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving federal financial assistance.” 42 U.S.C. § 2000d

Q. What is a recipient of federal financial assistance?
A. Federal financial assistance includes grants, training, use of equipment, donations of surplus property, and other assistance. Subrecipients are also covered when federal funds are passed from one recipient to a subrecipient. Recipients of federal funds range from state and local agencies, to nonprofits and other organizations. A list of the types of recipients and the agencies funding them can be found at Executive Order 12250 Coordination of Grant-Related Civil Rights Statutes.

Title VI covers a recipient's entire program or activity. This means all parts of a recipient's operations are covered. This is true even if only one part of the recipient receives the federal assistance.

More information on Title VI, generally, can be found at Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 42 U.S.C. § 2000d et seq. .

Q. What does Title VI do?
A.

• Prohibits entities from discriminatorily denying a protected individual any service, financial aid, or other benefit under the covered programs and activities.
• Prohibits entities from providing services or benefits to some individuals that are different from or inferior (in either quantity or quality) to those provided to others.
• Prohibits segregation or separate treatment in any manner related to the receiving program services or benefits.
• Prohibits entities from imposing different standards or conditions as prerequisites for serving individuals.

• State and local government agency distributing Federal assistance or entity distributing Federal assistance to the State or local government agency.
• College, university, or other post-secondary institution
• Local educational agency or system of vocational education, or other school system
• Entire corporation, partnership, or other private organization, or a sole proprietorship
• Entire private organization in education, housing, healthcare, etc.
• Entire plant or private corporation or other organization that is a geographically separate facility to which Federal financial assistance is extended.