Urban League declares a ‘state of emergency’ for civil rights in the US in response to Trump

By MATT BROWN WASHINGTON AP One of the nation s oldest civil rights organizations on Thursday declared a state of emergency for antidiscrimination policies personal freedoms and Black economic advancement in response to President Donald Trump s upending of civil rights precedents and the federal agencies traditionally tasked with enforcing them The National Urban League s annual State of Black America description accuses the federal governing body of being increasingly determined to sacrifice its founding principles and threatening to impose a uniform training system and a homogenous workforce that sidelines anyone who doesn t fit a narrow exclusionary mold according to a copy obtained by The Associated Press If left unchecked the authors write they pitfall reversing decades of progress that have made America more dynamic competitive and just FILE Rep Yvette Clarke D-N Y speaks during a Society Town Hall on Feb in the Brooklyn borough of New York AP Photo Frank Franklin II File FILE Rep Steve Horsford D-Nev speaks before President Joe Biden at the Vote to Live Action Fund s Prosperity Summit in Las Vegas July AP Photo Susan Walsh File Show Caption of FILE Rep Yvette Clarke D-N Y speaks during a Group Town Hall on Feb in the Brooklyn borough of New York AP Photo Frank Franklin II File Expand Statement critiques racism entering mainstream of American politics The summary to be circulated Thursday at the group s conference in Cleveland Ohio criticizes the administration for downsizing federal agencies and programs that enforce civil rights policies The authors aimed to highlight what they saw as a multiyear coordinated effort by conservative legal activists lawmakers and media personalities to undermine civil rights agenda and create a political landscape that would enable a hard-right agenda on a range of social and economic procedures It is not random It is a well-funded well-organized well-orchestrated movement of numerous a multitude of years stated Marc Morial president of the Urban League For a long time people saw white supremacist politics and white nationalism as on the fringe of American politics It has now become the mainstream of the American right whose central foundation is within the Republican Party The review directly critiques Project a sweeping blueprint for conservative governance coordinated by The Heritage Foundation think tank Project advised approaches to federal worker layoffs immigration enforcement and the congressional and legislative branches similar to the Trump administration s current strategy The Urban League description condemns major corporations universities and top law firms for reversing diversity equity and inclusion policies It also criticizes social media companies like Meta and X for purported censorship of Black activists and creatives and content moderation policies that allegedly enabled extremists to spread radicalizing views Debates over civil rights enter the center of the political fray The Trump administration has explained numerous policies implemented by both Democratic and Republican administrations are discriminatory and unconstitutional arguing that acknowledgments of race and federal and corporate policies that seek to address disparities between different demographics are themselves discriminatory Trump has signed executive orders banning illegal discrimination and promoting merit based opportunity Harrison Fields a White House spokesman commented civil rights groups that oppose the administration aren t advancing anything but hate and division while the president is focused on uniting our country Related Articles Republican senators caution Trump against firing Fed chair Jerome Powell Trump s approval rating on immigration and establishment spending has slipped new poll finds Trump tries to blame others as tensions rise around handling of Epstein incident Justice Department fires Maurene Comey prosecutor on Epstein event and daughter of ex-FBI director Federal judge says she would block Trump s birthright citizenship order nationwide The review meanwhile calls for the creation of a new resistance to counter the administration s agenda Morial urged other organizations to rally to that cause The Urban League and other civil rights groups have repeatedly sued the Trump administration since January Liberal legal groups and Democratic lawmakers similarly sued over parts of the administration s agenda Veteran civil rights activists Black civic leaders former federal officers Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul and seven members of Congress including House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries contributed to the text Raoul revealed that civil rights allies have felt on the defense in current years but that now it s time to act affirmatively For instance if rollbacks of DEI policies consequence in discrimination against women or people of color legal action could follow he warned It all depends on how they do it We re going to be watching he commented And just because the Trump administration doesn t believe in disparate impact anymore doesn t mean the rest of the universe must believe that The account criticizes the Trump administration s efforts to shutter the Guidance Department and denounces changes to programs meant to promotion communities of color at the departments of Commerce Wellbeing and Human Services and Housing and Urban Enhancement among others The transformation of the Justice Department scivil rights division was singled out as an existential threat to civil rights enforcement The Justice Department pointed to its published civil rights agenda and a social media post from its civil rights arm that reads the division has returned to enforcing the law as written fairly equally and without political agenda Nevada Rep Steve Horsford a contributor to the summary disclosed Trump betrayed the American people in enacting plans he announced were similar to Project Lawmakers reflect on the long fight for civil rights Another contributor Rep Yvette Clarke chair of the Congressional Black Caucus explained civil rights advocates and their Democratic allies must do more to communicate with and educate people When you have an administration that s willing to take civil rights gains and call it reverse racism then there s a lot of work to be done to unpack that for folks the New York Democrat stated I think once people understand their connection to civil rights gains then we will be in a position to build that momentum The Urban League originally planned to focus its overview on the legacy of the Voting Rights Act of for the law s th anniversary but pivoted after Trump returned to office to focus on unpacking the threats to our democracy and policies civil rights advocates are taking to pull the country back from the brink of a dangerous tilt towards authoritarianism For multiple veteran civil rights activists the administration s changes are condemnable but not surprising Specific lawmakers see it as a duty to continue the long struggle for civil rights I think it s all part of the same struggle mentioned Rep Shomari Figures an Alabama Democrat who contributed to the statement and whose father was successfully brought a wrongful-death suit against a branch of the Ku Klux Klan At the end of the day that struggle boils down to Can I be treated like everybody else in this country