Los Angeles, CA -- (SBWire) -- 07/15/2013 --Black Skeptics Los Angeles (BSLA), an African American atheist community-based organization, has partnered with the Freedom from Religion Foundation (FFRF) on its 2014 scholarship fund for youth non-believers of color. This year BSLA awarded five outstanding South Los Angeles students college scholarships. Jamion Allen, Phillip Aubrey, Hugo Cervantes, Ramiro Salas and Victory Yates from Washington Prep High School, King Drew Medical Magnet and Duke Ellington Continuation School received scholarships of up to $1000 toward their college expenses.

In 2013, BSLA, a 501c3 nonprofit, spearheaded its First in the Family Humanist Scholarship initiative, which focuses on undocumented, foster care, homeless and LGBTQ youth who will be the first in their families to go to college. The organization was created to provide resources for non-believers of color and combat stereotypes about atheists not being socially responsible. Responding directly to the school-to-prison pipeline crisis in communities of color, BSLA is the first atheist organization to specifically address college pipelining for youth of color. If current prison pipelining trends persist the Education Trust estimates that only “one of every 20 African American kindergartners will graduate from a four-year California university” in the next decade.

About The Freedom from Religion Foundation
The Freedom from Religion Foundation is a nonprofit organization that “works as an umbrella for those who are free from religion and are committed to the cherished principle of separation of state and church.” The FFRF sponsors publications and competitions and conducts outreach and education on secularism worldwide.

Website: http://www.blackskepticsla.org

Contact: Sikivu Hutchinson, shutch2396@aol.com, 213-703-6982