Derrick Johnson, NAACP president and CEO. PHOTO COURTESY OF WIKIPEDIA

By David L. Snelling

Miami – The NAACP has filed a federal lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Education for forcing colleges to eliminate DEI policies that benefited Black college students and violating their civil rights for equal education opportunities.

President Donald Trump signed an executive order to ban DEI requirements in federal government’s public workplaces and colleges, repealing the 1964 Civil Rights Act signed by President Lyndon Johnson which outlawed discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex and national origin.

Trump’s decree prohibits DEI based on race and gender for colleges such as admission, financial aid, hiring practices and promotions.

The president even threatened to defund universities that continue to foster DEI programs.

 

The NAACP, the oldest and largest civil rights group, said the U.S. Department of Education’s attempt to prohibit DEI initiatives is depriving Black college students of an equal education.

The group, along with the Legal Defense Fund (LDF), filed litigation against the department and U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon and Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Craig Trainor.

The federal lawsuit was filed in United State District Court for the District of Columbia.

The NAACP is asking the federal district court to urge the Education Department to stop proceeding with its enforcement actions, some of which have already resulted in schools losing funding.

Other schools have already complied with cancelling their DEI programs.

“The Department of Education, tasked with a responsibility to protect the civil rights of all children, has instead claimed systemic racism doesn’t exist, effectively sanctioning the very discrimination that our civil rights laws were designed to prevent,” said Derrick Johnson, NAACP’s President and CEO. “Meanwhile, children of color consistently attend segregated, chronically underfunded schools where they receive less educational opportunities and more discipline. Denying these truths doesn’t make them disappear, it deepens the harm.”

Michaele N. Turnage Young, senior counsel and co-manager of the Equal Protection Initiative at the Legal Defense Fund, said for decades, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights ensured that all students, including Blacks who face barriers that deny them equal educational opportunities, can receive the support and resources to thrive academically.

“Yet, in direct conflict with its mission, the Office for Civil Rights has baselessly characterized vital efforts to advance racial equality to themselves as racially discriminatory, thus weaponizing the anti-discrimination laws against the very communities they are meant to protect,” Young said. “These threats have incited a wave of chaos, uncertainty, and fear within our classrooms, cultural centers, and student and parent groups across the country, and run afoul of our nation’s ideals.”

On his 2024 campaign trail, Trump promised to abolish DEI initiatives, and it appeared most Americans supported his political agenda.

Trump beat Vice President Kamala Harris, who championed DEI policies, by a landslide, and 26 percent of Blacks supported Trump, aware of his plan to eliminate DEI policies, according to a post-election study.

Trump said the federal government and private companies shouldn’t be beholden to DEI policies which limit them to effectively run operations.

“We have ended the tyranny of socalled diversity, equity and inclusion policies all across the entire federal government and, indeed, the private sector and our military,” Trump said in March. “And our country will be woke no longer.”

Trump pressured federal contractors to end DEI policies and even had private companies under investigation for their anti-discriminatory regulations.

Harvard University is clashing with the Trump administration, demanding the Ivy League school change its policies for admissions and hiring practices, and teaching practices to help fight antisemitism on campus.

The Trump administration is withholding $2.2 billion in contracts and an additional $1 billion for the school’s funding for health research but Harvard filed a federal lawsuit on April 21 asking the court to force the president to release the grants.

Trump also threatened Havard’s tax-exempt status.

Harvard University announced in March it was offering free tuition for undergraduates with family incomes below the $200,000 threshold.

Students from families with annual incomes of $100,000 or less would have all costs covered.

Harvard is also offering 122 free online courses to lifelong learners without any enrollment fees.