By Lauren Burke

At a time when few Democrats are having events in public in defense of diversity, equity, and inclusion policies, a forum took place on Capitol Hill focused on legacy civil rights policy and its importance. The April 1 forum featured representatives of five civil rights organizations including the Lawyers Committee on Civil Rights, the NAACP, and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. “I think the single dumbest phrase in military history is our diversity is our strength,” Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth stated at a Department of Defense event on Feb. 7. Since then, the Administration has moved to remove Black historical figures, such as Jackie Robinson who served in WWII, from positions of prominence on social media platforms.

Participants in the April 1 forum on Capitol Hill spoke pointedly on President Trump’s opposition to diversity as well as what their organization is doing in opposition. Many in the Democratic Party have been quiet on the issue of whether or not to defend “DEI.” “Some of the proponents of elimination of the Department of Education campaign on the slogan of states’ rights. We remember that campaign was used in the 1960s for those who wanted to maintain segregation,” Rep. Bobby Scott (D-Va.) stated in his opening remarks. Attacks on diversity policy have become the cornerstone of Trump’s opening 100 days in office. Less than 48 hours into his second term in office on January 21, 2025, President Trump signed an Executive Order titled, “Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity” in an official effort to stop diversity.

“This is about distraction and it is about division. That is the point. They are trying to distract and divide us in order to attack the fundamental protections against discrimination for Black communities, Latino communities, Asian American communities, and women,” said Amelia Smirniotopoulos from the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. “This is a decades-long organized campaign that began as soon as the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed. It was designed to take away the protections that were hard fought and won by the civil rights movement and to return us to a time when racial segregation and other forms of segregation were the norm in this country. I think having that generational perspective is key in figuring out how to combat the attacks we are seeing today. At the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, we are made for this fight. We have been in existence for 85 years now. We helped litigate Brown versus Board of Education, and we are committed to defending the proper interpretation of the Equal Protection Clause in this country,” Smirniotopoulos added.

As the panel presented their arguments, U.S. Senator Cory Booker spoke at length against Trump’s policies on the Senate floor on his way to breaking a filibuster record held by segregationist U.S. Strom Thurmond to block the Civil Rights Act of 1957. Thurmond’s record stood for 68 years. What Booker focused on, cuts to Social Security, also came up at the civil rights forum. “What is really happening at this moment in time is an attack on our social safety nets, recognizing that there are cuts happening to Medicare, to Medicaid, to Social Security, to veteran benefits. For the NAACP after 116 years of advocacy — that is our bread and butter. That is our population,” said Wisdom Cole of the national NAACP.

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