One of the country’s oldest civil rights organizations is urging people across the U.S. to resist the Trump administration.
The National Urban League’s new report, “The State of Black America,” accuses the federal government of harming Black and underserved communities with federal spending cuts and diversity rollbacks.
The group said President Donald Trump’s agenda could put democracy and decades of civil rights progress at risk.
The annual report was supposed to focus on the 60th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act, which was signed into law on Aug. 6, 1965. But National Urban League President and CEO Marc Morial said the group had to shift priorities to declare a “state of emergency” about the impacts of federal policies.
“We had to pivot because at the beginning of the Trump administration, it became apparent that there was a determination to roll back the progress of the last 70 years,” Morial said. “It was clear within the first several days of the 47th president’s administration that he was determined to roll back that progress through executive orders. The attack on diversity, equity and inclusion is an attack on the Civil Rights Act and the way in which we enforce it and the way in which we follow it.”
Morial said that Black Americans experienced an uptick in unemployment as Trump took office while White unemployment decreased. As Trump’s federal spending bill starts to take effect, advocates are raising concerns about cuts to Medicaid and SNAP hitting families hard. Morial said Trump’s bill would disproportionately impact Black communities, which already face barriers to voting, health care and more.
The report also raises concerns about democratic freedoms, such as the freedom of speech, and equity and inclusion programs that reduce barriers to jobs, education and housing. Trump signed executive orders early in his second term urging companies and institutions to abandon their diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs. As a result, many large corporations such as Target and Walmart pulled back on their commitments to DEI. The Urban League called for more accountability for companies and also sued the Trump administration over its efforts to dismantle diversity efforts.
“The idea that diversity, equity and inclusion is somehow a preference program has circulated in the far right for years,” Morial said. “Now it’s got a champion in the White House. These ideas are extremely dangerous because they undercut the general consensus that has existed in this country for years — that we have to make progress when it comes to including everyone in the economic future of America.”
Morial said his group is calling for a new era of resistance, which involves mass protests and lawsuits challenging the Trump administration’s efforts.
“We also embrace an alternative vision,” Morial said. “There’s a vision of America that talks about White supremacy, a White Christian ideology. Our vision for America is a multicultural, multiracial American democracy. That is what is at the heart of this battle — competing visions for what the future of this country ought to be about.”
