WHITE HOUSE – WASHINGTON, D.C.
This week the Trump administration amended an executive order prohibiting Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives in the federal government to essentially allow Jim Crow practices by federal contractors and less scrutiny.
The segregation clause, highlighted in a memo sent to federal agencies by the General Services Administration (GSA) just over 30 days ago, no longer prohibits contractors from having segregated waiting rooms, drinking fountains or workspaces. Though the alteration was designed to further solidify President Donald Trump’s mandate to end DEI, the memo may signal a return to what some with roots in America’s racist past considers “the good old days” of Jim Crow.
However, despite the cultural parallel to America’s dark past, the Trump administration also said in the memo, “Contractors are still covered by existing United States laws on civil rights/nondiscrimination. These laws apply whether or not the company is a government contractor, according to William Clark, director of the Office of Government-wide Acquisition Policy.
This means federal contractors should be mindful that they could still be reprimanded, sued, and ordered to provide remedies to employees or customers by state or local municipalities and courts.
Clark informed GSA that future federal contracts and new solicitations will exclude provisions for Apprentices and Trainees, Prohibition of Segregated Facilities, Previous Contracts and Compliance Reports, Affirmative Action for Equal Employment Opportunity in Construction, On-Site Equal Opportunity Compliance Evaluation, Affirmative Action Compliance, and Equal Opportunity.
Essentially, the new directive ensures that federal contractors and suppliers will not be scrutinized on whether or not they complied with anti-discrimination laws based on race and gender in the workplace.
This could be welcome news for a federal contractor such as Tesla. The electric automotive company, helmed by Department of Government Efficiencies director Elon Musk, has faced multiple lawsuits alleging racial discrimination and harassment of Black workers at its Fremont, California factory, including a class action lawsuit and a lawsuit by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), with some cases resulting in multimillion-dollar settlements or jury awards.
According to an analysis by Washington Post reporters, Musk’s companies have received $38 billion in federal welfare, contracts, and loans. Last month, the U.S. State Department scrapped plans to award the “world’s richest man” a $400 million contract for armored vehicles to transport diplomats after a backlash from Democrats.
It appears current and future contractors need not worry about fulfilling racial quotas or ensuring safe workplaces, or a history of racial discrimination or sexual harassment complaints. However, the Trump administration did carve out some protections in the federal contracting memo for veterans and people with disabilities. Still, members of Congress and watchdog groups have said these are not enough.
Jim Crow is a term used to describe a series of laws and anti-Black social practices that targeted African Americans in all segments of society. The term first appeared in 1820 in a minstrel show performed by white entertainer Thomas Dartmouth “Daddy” Rice, who painted his face black and performed a song-and-dance routine called “Jump Jim Crow.”
By the 19th century, the term evolved into a system of laws and customs designed to enforce racial segregation and the subjugation of Black people throughout the U.S., particularly in southern states. Racial segregation was strictly enforced in schools, public transportation, employment, the use of public facilities, housing, and the use of newly acquired voting rights. These apartheid-like policies were implemented after the Reconstruction (1877) and lasted for nearly a century.
Socially, Jim Crow customs included making Black people cross to another side of a street or lower their eyes when encountering a white person and ensuring a deceased loved one was buried in a segregated cemetery. Failure to abide by the unspoken laws resulted in brutal assaults, aggravated batteries, forced labor, abrupt unemployment, incarceration and even death. From 1882 to 1968, there were 4,743 recorded lynchings in the United States. Of these, 3,446 victims were Black, making up about 72 percent of the total.
Despite this and continued egregious incidents of hate crimes against African Americans, the Emmett Till Antilynching Act wasn’t signed into law until March 29, 2022.
However, the official yet slow dismantling of the Jim Crow system began in 1948 when President Harry Truman ordered the desegregation of the U.S. Military. This move was followed by the U.S. Supreme Court’s Brown vs. Board of Education ruling, which declared racial segregation in public schools as unconstitutional. President Dwight D. Eisenhower came next when in 1957 and again in 1960 signed more minor civil rights laws and sent federal troops to enforce school integration in Little Rock. In 1961, President John F. Kennedy continued the federal government’s slow push for full civil rights legislation but was assassinated before the legislation was passed.
President Donald Trump’s Executive Order (EO) 14173, “Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity,” effectively repealed EO 11246, the Equal Employment Opportunity Act, signed by President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1965 that made it illegal for federal contractors to engage in discrimination. A year earlier, after civil unrest and the rising power of Black leadership, he passed the Civil Rights Act (1964), followed by the Voting Rights Act (1965) and Fair Housing Act in 1968, thereby legally dismantling Jim Crow.
As the U.S. government sought to rectify some of the economic, educational, medical, and social harms inflicted upon Black Americans for centuries, a public backlash followed fiercely and with a vengeance. White citizens rioted, destroyed Black businesses, kidnapped and tortured African American soldiers returning from war, and created a multitude of citizens councils, associations, think tanks, schools, universities, and churches to push anti-Black ideology. Chief among their growing complaints was the false notion that something was being taken from their families. It redistributed to the former descendants of slaves who were mostly “ignorant,” “lazy,” or “criminal,” despite the fact that some Caucasian families relied on their African American employees to raise their children, clean and manage their households, balance their finances and contribute to their artistic growth.
The ”Make America Great Again” ideology championed by President Trump has been noted by some observers as having roots in conservative Christian nationalism, but Ed Kilgore wrote in New York Magazine that MAGA is a “thoroughly national phenomenon drawing on reactionary and “populist” impulses from every region of the country.”
THE IMPACT ON BLACK AMERICA
The African American Mayors Association (AAMA), which represents hundreds of Black elected officials throughout the country, said the federal cuts will ultimately hurt municipalities with smaller tax bases and those with large constituencies that rely on safety net programs.
“The recent Trump administration DOGE cuts have made a significant impact on every AAMA member mayor city,” AAMA Chief Executive Officer Phyllis Dickerson told the Crusader in a statement. “Important funds have been frozen and key personnel that mayors rely on have been cut. Black mayors are particularly impacted, as they often lead smaller cities with constrained tax bases and cities with large, high-need populations that rely disproportionately on the human services agencies that are experiencing the most significant cuts, like HUD, HHS, and the Department of Education,” she said.
Black mayors represent 29.5 million people or nearly 66 percent of the entire U.S. African American population. Five of the largest U.S. cities—New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, and Dallas—are managed by Black mayors.
The AAMA is a member-based organization that offers individualized support for leaders. The group’s leader also noted that the organization works to “find as many ways as possible to educate, advocate, and support our mayors.”
Dickerson also told the Crusader, “No mayor has stated they were unfairly targeted (by Trump), and the “freeze of funds has affected every city. “These cities often look to Washington because their state and local resources are limited. And Black mayor-led cities may have to plug more holes fiscally than other majority jurisdictions,” she said. “AAMA looks forward to working with the Trump administration to focus on these pressing concerns. These cuts disrupt our mayors’ ability to provide needed programs and services for the residents of their cities.”
With their hands full, some African American mayors have focused on local issues and avoided the glare from Washington, D.C. However, the chief executives of the three largest cities have all come under prolific scrutiny by the Trump administration. Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, and New York Mayor Eric Adams recently received letters from the Department of Justice about their response to antisemitism on college and university campuses in their cities.
This month, President Trump also ordered his handpicked U.S. Education Secretary, Linda McMahon, to begin deconstructing the agency. The former pro wrestling promoter and billionaire immediately terminated all staff in seven of the Office of Civil Rights (OCR) 12 regional offices, effectively weakening federal civil rights enforcement in U.S. schools, leaving millions of students without protections against discrimination based on race, color, national origin, ancestry sex, gender, disability, and age.
Trump’s cuts to federal agencies have been swiftly felt in U.S. cities, leading to protests and local outcry. In Chicago, several offices that provided civil rights enforcement and protections, such as the Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs and Education, were shuttered, leaving many cases unresolved.
Researchers and medical experts have decried funding cuts to research programs targeting various cancers and HIV. University of Illinois Chicago employees and researchers protested this past February in anticipation of proposed funding cuts from the National Institutes of Health, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, the Centers for Disease Control, and the National Science Foundation.
One day after the president’s inauguration, the U.S. Department of Labor issued a notice to The Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs instructing those agencies to immediately cease “promoting “diversity, holding federal contractors and subcontractors responsible for taking “affirmative action” and allowing or encouraging Federal contractors and subcontractors to engage in workforce balancing based on race, color, sex, sexual preference, religion, or national origin.
The strengthening of Uncle Sam’s grip on programs designed to level the playing field for African Americans, Latinos, Asians, women, immigrants, and others has caused alarm throughout the country. Trump’s efforts to privatize or greatly reduce social safety nets and end the federal government’s role in rooting out and penalizing companies and individuals who seek to harm and discriminate against Blacks and others appear to be an attempt to completely dismantle all socio-political gains among African Americans and women.
Ironically, white females have been the largest beneficiaries of federal affirmative action programs.
While history has focused on the role of presidents and activists in loosening white supremacy throughout the U.S., one man remains overlooked. Nearly all of the federal laws and Executive Orders that sent death blows to Jim Crow were made possible due to the unmatched efforts of New York Congressman Adam Clayton Powell, Jr.
Powell, a fiery Baptist preacher, activist, and politician, was dubbed “Mr. Civil Rights” after he successfully shaped and passed major new social safety laws that continue to benefit millions of Americans. The “Powell Amendment” championed the inclusion of Title VI, which prohibited discrimination in federally funded programs.
After the 1968 assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., President Johnson sought to quell the rebellions, uprisings and riots that had broken out in cities across the country. Rep. Powell used the tragedy and his unique charisma to push through several “Great Society” initiatives to strengthen Black Americans. Those included the launch of federal Head Start programs for low-income families, the creation of the Job Corps, which provided workforce training for young people, particularly disaffected Black youth, and Upward Bound, a college preparatory program for poor students.
The congressman also shepherded the 1965 Higher Education Act, which increased federal grants and loans for college students. Powell played a major role in expanding the Fair Labor Standards Act, which increased the minimum wage and extended protections to more workers, including service industry employees. He implemented and pushed through the Black Panthers’ free breakfast and lunch programs, which increased federal funding to local schools to provide school lunches and strengthen nutrition assistance programs.
