A spokesman for Knoxville Community Development Corporation (KCDC) confirmed in a Tuesday statement that the federal government rescinded a $42.6 million grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation following the passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act of 2025, which President Donald Trump signed last week.
Once this act became law, it immediately eliminated the Biden-era program that offered the grant.
According to 10 News, KCDC Executive Director Ben Bentley confirmed the sweeping federal budget contained a provision that eliminates all funding for the Neighborhood Access and Equity Grant Program, the Biden-era initiative that provided the funding granted to the public housing authority by the U.S. Department of Transportation last year.
Knoxville Mayor Indya Kincannon stated in a March 2024 press release that the funding was specifically made possible by former President Joe Biden’s Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021.
After the mayor’s office said the money would go toward “the restoration of cultural and economic opportunity to communities impacted by urban renewal initiatives” in previous generations, Kincannon said the grant was the “largest federal grant award in Knoxville’s recent history,” and would “make a significant impact by prioritizing disadvantaged communities, allowing residents to move safely to jobs, schools, healthcare and parks,” before crediting “the transformative effect” of Biden’s presidency for the funding.
One of the past infrastructure projects the Biden-era grant planned to address was the construction of the James White Parkway, which the city claimed “affected predominantly Black neighborhoods in downtown and East Knoxville.”
The federal money was also earmarked for “curated exhibitions, which showcase digital storytelling that connects history and culture to the places that once housed a thriving Black community, complete with businesses, churches and schools.”
In the 2024 press release, former Knoxville Council Member Gwen McKenzie similarly said the project would emphasize the city’s history based on race.
She said last year, “We are working alongside the Beck Cultural Exchange Center to create a pathway that includes markers, maps and monuments to illustrate some of Knoxville’s African American history which was impacted by Urban Renewal.”
Although not referenced by Bentley or explicitly mentioned in the One Big Beautiful Bill, Trump has notably signed both an executive order and a presidential memorandum to prohibit federal grant money from reaching groups that promote diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Without the funding, Bentley said the fate of the KCDC plan remains uncertain, according to 10 News, which reported that the executive director acknowledged that replacing the federal money with local sources of funding “will be essential” to completing the initiative.
– – –
Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star, and also reports for The Pennsylvania Daily Star and The Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Mayor Indya Kincannon” by Mayor Indya Kincannon. Background Photo “Knoxville Skyline” by Bohao Zhao. CC BY 3.0.
Please remove DEI from Tennessee schools.
The melting pot of America is now being segregated by race as an objective of the left. Martin Luther King had it right when he said we should be judged by the content of our character rather than the color of our skin. His wise counsel has been tossed in the dustbin of history by the “progressive” left.
Sounds good to me. I am one taxpayer who is way past tired of my dollars being given to others. I think that is called socialism if I recall what I learned in school. That was back when communism and socialism were actually contained in class materials in contrasting them to the America way called capitalism.
42.6 million dollars of waste fraud and abuse of taxpayer dollars eliminated. Kincannon, WBIR, the non profiteers and anyone looking to fleece the public should take note. Taxpayers are becoming wise to your methods and madness.