Under fire from civil rights groups, Facebook highlights Black stories, pledges to hire more African Americans

Facebook is creating “Lift Black Voices” to highlight stories from Black people and share educational resources, the latest effort from a major corporation to show solidarity with the Black community following nationwide protests over the death of George Floyd. 

The announcement was made the day before the social media company recognizes Juneteenth, a holiday commemorating the actual end of slavery in the United States.

It also comes as Facebook is under renewed fire from civil rights groups who say the company censors Black users for talking about racism while failing to protect those users from threats of violence from white supremacists. This week, those groups called for advertisers to boycott the company in July. Facebook has also been repeatedly called out for racial discrimination by its Black employees, who account for less than 4% of the company's U.S. workforce.

“The past few weeks have compelled us to confront the reality of violence and injustice which members of the Black community face on a daily basis,” Facebook's COO, Sheryl Sandberg, said in a statement.

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Facebook says it will feature curated content with essays and storytelling on Black life in America as well as videos. And it says it will encourage users to contribute  to racial justice causes such as the Equal Justice Initiative, Thurgood Marshall College Fund and the Innocence Project. Facebook itself is donating $5 million or the first $19 donation to over 250,000 fundraisers created for those three organizations, the company said.

In addition, Facebook said it would invest $100 million in Black-owned small businesses, Black content creators and nonprofit organizations that serve the Black community.

Another initiative calls for Facebook also pledged to spend at least $100 million annually with Black-owned suppliers, including construction and marketing agencies.

For the past six years, Facebook has shown slow progress in diversifying its employee ranks. In Thursday's announcement, Facebook committed to bringing aboard more Black and Hispanic employees. By 2023, Facebook pledged that 50% of its workforce would be from underrepresented communities and that it would increase the number of people of color in leadership roles by 30% over the next five years. 

None of Facebook's top six leaders is Black. According to Facebook's most recent filing with the federal government, just 3% – or 32 – of its executives, senior officials and managers are Black.

Contributing: Jessica Guynn