How Philly kids will learn from two black men’s wrongful arrest at a Starbucks

After a national furor over the 2018 arrest of two black men sitting at a Center City Starbucks without purchasing anything, Philadelphia agreed to a settlement with Rashon Nelson and Donte Robinson.

Each man got $1 and a pledge from the city to spend $200,000 on a program dedicated to teaching Philadelphia public school students about financial literacy, entrepreneurship, and the impact small businesses can have on a community.

The program was piloted last spring and summer with a group of students at Paul Robeson High School in West Philadelphia and Bartram High School in Southwest Philadelphia. It is run in partnership with the University of Pennsylvania’s Netter Center for Community Partnerships, which was already operating Bridges to Wealth, a financial empowerment program. The city resources will fund the program through January 2021; its resources should pay for more than 100 students’ entrepreneurship education.