Editorial: Urban League rightly calls out Trump's attacks on civil rights

The National Urban League was right to declare a “state of emergency” over civil rights policies in response to the Trump administration.

In its annual State of Black America report released last week, the group accuses the Trump administration of undermining decades of progress in civil rights.

The administration sought to dismiss the Urban League’s accusations.

Harrison Fields, a White House spokesman, said civil rights groups that oppose the administration “aren’t advancing anything but hate and division, while the president is focused on uniting our country.”

However the Urban League report highlights the Trump administration’s efforts to weaken federal agencies, reverse diversity policies, and promote a hard-right agenda.

The report accurately points out that the administration is “threatening to impose a uniform education system and a homogenous workforce that sidelines anyone who doesn’t fit a narrow, exclusionary mold.”

“If left unchecked,” the report authors write, “they risk reversing decades of progress that have made America more dynamic, competitive, and just.”

The administration has weakened civil rights and initiatives that have helped African Americans and other historically marginalized groups advance. This has been done mainly through a series of questionable legal executive orders including:

• Executive orders aimed at dismantling diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs across the federal government and the private sector. The orders are aimed at terminating equity-related grants and forbid federally-funded entities from engaging in diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility programs.

• Executive order titled, “Strengthening and Unleashing America’s Law Enforcement to Pursue Criminals and Protect Innocent Citizens,” which directs federal resources to promote aggressive policing tactics and further militarize local law enforcement agencies. The executive order also provides greater protections for law enforcement officers accused of misconduct.

• The Supreme Court is allowing President Donald Trump to proceed with his plan to carry out mass layoffs at the Education Department. The high court ruled that the president could go through with laying off nearly 14,000 employees and winding down the Education Department. The United States Department of Education is a cabinet-level department, originating in 1980. The department’s key functions include establishing policies on federal financial aid for education and distribution and prohibiting discrimination and ensuring equal access to education.

The Urban League report directly criticizes Project 2025, a 900-page policy guidebook by the Heritage Foundation, to reshape the federal government and consolidate executive power in favor of right-wing policies.

The administration’s executive orders have largely followed the proposals outlined in Project 2025.

“It is not random. It is a well-funded, well-organized, well-orchestrated movement of many, many years,” said Marc Morial, president of the Urban League.

The Urban League report also 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.

The Urban League and other civil rights have sought to fight back through a series of lawsuits challenging the administration’s legally questionable executive orders.

In addition to challenging the Trump administration in the courts, civil rights groups should prepare now to mobilize voters for the 2026 midterm elections.

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