Black organizations continue to consider involvement in protests against Trump's policies

The recent “No Kings Protest” brought an estimated 80,000 marchers onto the Benjamin Franklin Parkway.

The speakers on the Philadelphia Museum of Art steps reflected a crowd that was mostly white and from out of town. The press release promoting the event sent out a list that did not include any recognizable names from Philadelphia.

While activist Martin Luther King III did speak as part of the event, most of those who took to the podium represented newer groups and labor organizations with messages denouncing policies from the White House and warning about looming fascism.

Why did the local event attract fewer Black attendees in a city where Black residents make up nearly 40% of the population?

Co-founder and executive director of the Black Voters Matter Fund Cliff Albright said Black Americans are already familiar with tactics being used to curtail freedoms and liberties.

“We don’t need Fascism 101, we’re at Fascism 440,” he said. “We’re in doctoral-level classes on that. Most of the fascism around the world (came from) U.S. fascism against Black folks and indigenous folks.”

The start of the second Trump administration saw pushback against diversity, equity and inclusion policies in the public and private sectors. The Black community organized boycotts and “buycotts” in response to defend what has been learned from the George Floyd and other protests in 2020. Now that the public attention has focused to immigration and other punitive measures, the response from Black organizations has been muted and mixed.

Darrin Anderson, president and CEO of the Urban League of Greater Philadelphia, told The Philadelphia Tribune that the organization’s efforts to provide social services like reentry programs to returning citizens in the counties around Philadelphia prompted adding a word to its name.

While the National Urban League condemned the sweeps by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, also known as ICE, in Los Angeles earlier this month, Anderson said that Black demonstrators were among the first arrested in the subsequent protests.

“I don’t believe the African American community is taking a stand back or we’re being passive,” he said.

“I think we’re being strategic and being intentional about where we put our energy and where we put our efforts. It doesn’t mean that we don’t stand with (those affected by raids), in terms of ideologically. I think it means that the Black community is taking a different approach and there’s not a cookie cutter to that approach.”

Director of Temple University’s Center for Anti-Racism Timothy Welbeck, said that current immigration policies create a dilemma for Black Americans.

On one hand, the injustice toward immigration communities could easily extend to other minority groups. On the other, immigration policy does not directly or proportionately target Black groups. Black voters overwhelmingly supported former Vice President Kamala Harris in the last election, knowing Trump’s return to office could lead to four more years of chaos and oppression of minorities.

Welbeck said there are two notable differences in protesting for Blacks today compared to the 1950s and 1960s. Organizations now don’t have figurehead leaders like civil rights icon Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. or Black Panther Fred Hampton. The other is the change in policies and law enforcement being protested.

“Prior generations had a more definitive target for advocacy,” he said. “There has been a perception that the fight isn’t as necessary.” He noted that Black-led organizations have shifted their focuses to meeting the needs of their communities, which may mean job training, mutual aid, or other social programs.

Regarding appearances at the “No Kings” protest, a spokesperson for Council President Kenyatta Johnson, D-2nd District, said “Council President Kenyatta Johnson did not attend the No Kings protest because he already had a previously scheduled commitment that day. The Council president gets invited on a daily basis to attend or speak at numerous events citywide and he decides what events to attend on a case-by-case basis.”

Minority Whip Nicolas O’Rourke, WFP-At-Large, has been seen at protests since before taking office in January 2024. While he is away from his elected office on paternity leave, a spokesperson for O’Rourke told The Tribune, “He always attends protests at his own discretion. Our team is not accepting any event invites for him through his leave, so the ones he may end up at will be solely at his discretion.”

Trump has said he will target Democratic cities like Philadelphia with increased ICE raids to detain suspected illegal immigrants.

However, Anderson said he will hear out other groups that look to work with the Urban League of Greater Philadelphia.

“We’re willing to communicate and to meet with anyone that has the best interests in the demographic and the people that we serve,” he said. “We don’t see ourselves having any enemies but we don’t necessarily in bed with anyone.”

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