Congressional Black Caucus and civil rights leaders unite to counter Trump administration's agenda

WASHINGTON — The Congressional Black Caucus and major civil rights groups on Tuesday marked Black History Month by relaunching a national plan to mobilize against what they say are the Trump administration's efforts to weaken legal protections for minority communities.

The assembled leaders voiced outrage over the series of policy actions President Donald Trump has implemented since his return to the White House, as well as the president's personal conduct, but offered few concrete details about what they’re prepared to do in response to the administration.

“Over the past year, we have seen a concerted effort to roll back civil rights underlying voting access, dismantle social programs and concentrate power in the hands of the wealthy and well-connected, at the expense of our community,” said Rep. Yvette Clarke, D-N.Y., chair of the Congressional Black Caucus.

In rounds of free-flowing meetings on Capitol Hill, activists and lawmakers divvied up outreach strategies and coordinated policy platforms on education and the teaching of history, health care, immigration enforcement and anti-discrimination policy.

Attendees described the conversations as sobering but energizing. Multiple sessions focused on how to protect voters' access to the ballot in the midterms from potential intervention by federal agents, a fear that activists and Democratic lawmakers have increasingly raised since a raid on an Atlanta-area elections center.

Other sessions gamed out how lawmakers could respond to an upcoming ruling from the Supreme Court that may strike down a pivotal section of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

“It’s an all-hands-on-deck moment, and every tool available to the leadership collectively has got to be deployed to get this thing turned around,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., told The Associated Press after the press conference.

Jeffries did not rule out mass protests, organizing boycotts and further legal action as potential steps that allies may take.

The leaders’ warnings come at a moment when the Trump administration has continued its crusade against diversity, equity and inclusion across the U.S. government, in higher education and the private sector.

At the start of his second term, Trump signed multiple executive orders banning the use of “illegal DEI” in government agencies, as well as organizations that interact with the federal government. Trump has threatened to withhold funds from major companies, nonprofit groups and state governments as part of the administration's efforts to ban DEI.

The administration has also sought to redefine the nation's culture and how history is taught in museums, classrooms and other educational settings. It also prioritized investigating and prosecuting civil rights cases of potential discrimination against white people through both the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, among other agencies.

Civil rights leaders and Democratic lawmakers have already filed dozens of lawsuits against the administration's anti-DEI policies. Last month, the Trump administration dropped its legal appeal of a federal court ruling that blocked its efforts to withhold federal funding to schools and colleges over DEI policies.

Locked out of power in both chambers of Congress, Democrats have few ways to conduct oversight or limit the actions of the Trump administration. And civil rights leaders, who were largely knocked on the back foot by a deluge of policy changes over the last year, are attempting to regroup ahead of this year's midterm elections.

Already unhappy with the administration’s entire agenda, civil rights leaders acknowledged a frustrating irony to the moment. Several advocates argued that the president's agenda on immigration, voting rights, the economy and other issues is exploiting hard-won policies that activists had, for decades, used to ensure anti-discrimination and economic advancement for Black communities.

“This is about how this administration is using the tools we built as a Black community to ensure that all of our people are protected,” said Maya Wiley, president and CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights.

Progressive state leaders and civil rights groups have stepped up their efforts elsewhere. A partnership of civil rights groups and Democratic attorneys general from fourteen states and the District of Columbia this month launched an effort to promote DEI and accessibility policies through more aggressive legal action.

“State attorneys general are in a unique position to defend these fundamental rights, and this campaign will ensure everyone is heard and shielded from those who aim to weaken civil rights,” Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul said in a statement on Monday announcing the initiative.

The group intends to launch inquiries and file lawsuits across the country into instances where the leaders believe organizations may be violating anti-discrimination laws in response to the rollback of DEI policies by major companies and the Trump administration.

The effort faces an uncertain and shifting legal landscape.

Federal courts are divided over the use of race in hiring and anti-discrimination in the workplace. And the Supreme Court's conservative-majority has ruled against the use of race in college admissions. Several justices have voiced skepticism about whether it should be legal to factor race and other characteristics into policymaking by government agencies and private institutions, even if a policy was meant to combat discrimination.

The assembled civil rights leaders repeatedly acknowledged the uphill battle that their movement faced on multiple fronts. Some said that the administration's policy decisions set up stark political battles in the coming years.

Marc Morial, president of the National Urban League, said: “We commit today to fight and fight and fight until hell freezes over, and then, I can assure you, we will fight on the ice.”