Written by Shelley Bradford-Bell - Chair-Paris Chapter & Democrats Abroad France Black Caucus

On a recent show, Rachel Maddow spoke about the Trump Administration’s dismantling of Civil Rights. The attack on African Americans has not been this blatant since 1912, when Woodrow Wilson resegregated the federal workforce.

Maddow points out that while being terrible at everything they have done to our country, the only thing the Trump administration seems to be doing well is executing a concerted and intense targeting of African Americans.  These actions have all been taken within the first sixteen months of his current term.

On his first full day in office, he declared war on diversity efforts, not only within government, but in any institution in the country over which he can exert leverage. Everything from schools and universities to law firms, private businesses, and foundations that funded diversity programs. 

He immediately started firing some of the highest-profile Black public officials in the US government, seemingly regardless of anything other than their race. The firings included: 

• Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Charles Q. Brown Jr. 

• Librarian of Congress, Carla Hayden 

• Chair of the National Labor Relations Board, Gwynne Wilcox 

• Chair of the Surface Transportation Board, Robert E. Primus 

• Chair of the National Transportation Safety Board, Alvin Brown 

• Commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics, Peggy G. Carr 

• Chair of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Willie L. Phillips 

• Member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, Lisa D. Cook

And the list goes on …

Then, Trump and his “Doge” Elon Musk ripped apart the federal government with mass closures and firings.  The biggest cuts, unsurprisingly, targeted agencies that employed disproportionately large numbers of Black employees.

Erica L. Green, White House correspondent for The New York Times ,noted that nothing had moved backward in the federal government for Black Americans, this quickly or this far in over a hundred years, since Woodrow Wilson came in in 1912 and resegregated the federal workforce.

Woodrow Wilson's 1912 war on African Americans' Civil Rights

Under Wilson in 1912 writes Green, "Black employees were fired or demoted to lower-level jobs, relegated to separate and inferior lunchrooms and other facilities, and accused of making white women feel unsafe. Those who remained were humiliated. A Black worker in the postal service was surrounded by screens so white workers would not have to look at him. Another employee had a cage built around him to separate him from his white counterparts. A clerk in the Treasury Secretary's office was assigned to rewrite all correspondence to address Black employees by their first names.

That was in 1912, but here we are in 2026, with Trump and this administration furthering the history of the Wilson administration, in their own racist and bigoted ways.

Trump mimicked this disrespect when he publicly announced terminating, without cause, Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden, disrespectfully addressing her by her first name.

Trump's Executive Actions Reversing Civil Rights

In 1965, Lynden Johnson signed an executive order that banned all federal contractors from discriminating based on race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, or national origin.   On his first day in office, Trump rescinded that 1965 order.

Less than a month later, Trump announced another rule change, rescinding clause 52.222-21 of the federal acquisition regulation, which is the clause prohibiting segregated facilities.

To understand the full impact, this section states:

"The contractor agrees that it does not and will not maintain or provide for its employees any segregated facilities at any of its establishments, and that it does not and will not permit its employees to perform their services at any location under its control where segregated facilities are maintained."

This anti-segregation clause has been in government contracts for decades, but Trump overtly rescinded it in his first 30-days in office.  The implications are clear; the barriers have been removed.  With its removal, it bluntly implies the federal government no longer explicitly prohibits contractors from having segregated restaurants, waiting rooms, and drinking fountains. 

Adding more discriminatory structure to the mix, fired employees in the Department of Housing and Urban Development have sounded the alarm that the Trump administration is no longer enforcing a federal law known as the Fair Housing Act.  The Fair Housing Act is yet another success of the Civil Rights movements this administration is ignoring.  

The Fair Housing Act of 1968 states you cannot refuse to rent to someone or refuse to sell a house to someone based on race, religion, national origin, or any other factor to protect against discrimination.

According to current and former employees of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Trump administration has dropped enforcement of this Act.

During Trump's first year back in office, Black unemployment spiked in this country from 6.2% to 7.5%, making us the highest percentage of unemployed for all racial groups.

Under Joe Biden, Black unemployment had been at a record low of 4.8%. 

The Trump administration has openly targeted African Americans in a deliberate way, and it has been devastating. 

The Voting Rights Act and the Supreme Court

All the previously mentioned attacks by the Trump Administration happened before the Supreme Court voted last week to effectively end the Voting Rights Act.  The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was the crowning achievement of the civil rights movement.

The court decision in Louisiana v. Callais

The decision that stated districts could not be drawn based on race, effectively gutted Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, opening the floodgates for possible Republican control of the country.  

On the heels of the Supreme Court decision, Louisiana's Republican governor canceled congressional elections, which are currently underway in that state, to rush through new maps that will presumably make sure that even though one-third of the population of that state is Black, there will be no Black representation in Congress for Louisiana at all. 

In South Carolina, a quarter of the population is Black. They have one majority minority district represented by an African American Democrat, Representative James E. Clyburn.  Their mapping strategy is to get rid of that one Black district, so that South Carolina has all Republican representatives, while the twenty-five percent of the population who are African American no longer have representation.

In Tennessee, one in six residents is Black. Republicans now want to make sure all nine congressional seats in Tennessee are white and Republican.  On the Louisiana State level, Jason Pearson, who is the only African American and represents a predominantly African American community, will be eliminated through new mapping.

Before the outrage could settle into action, the Supreme Court of Virginia ruled 4–3 on Friday that Virginia’s newly approved congressional map could not stand, effectively throwing out a voter-approved redistricting amendment that Democrats hoped would help us gain up to four U.S. House seats in the 2026 midterms.

In her dissent from the majority ruling in the Louisiana v. Callais case, Justice Elena Kagan said this gutting of the Voting Rights Act will cause the largest reduction to minority representation since the end of Reconstruction.  Clearly, the dominoes are falling across the red states to remove the African American voice from the democratic process.

The war on African Americans being waged by this president and this Republican party was clearly mapped out in Project 2025.  The strategic attack on African American public officials, our voting power, and Black Federal employees has been deliberate, strategic and devastating. Everywhere Republicans are in charge, they are working hard to ensure that Black public officials no longer hold office, and the Black vote is silenced.

The Response is in Motion – The Momentum is Building

The push back against the strategies around the country from churches and community organizing is growing.  The fight to stop the discriminatory practices and erasure of African American rights is building momentum across the country.  

But be aware, this is only the beginning of something far more insidious.  We are witnessing a systematic plan to destroy our constitutional nation and replace it with an authoritarian regime.  

The plan to get rid of the multi-racial democracy our constitution is supposed to protect is only the first step. Their plan runs far deeper.

For them, the African American community is the “low-hanging” fruit. Right now, It is a war on Black America. Immigrants of color, Latin, African, and Haitian have long been in their crosshairs.  Once they have destroyed the rights and access of African Americans, once they have silenced our voice and taken our vote and representation, there is no need to guess who they target next.  Read the tea leaves carefully: The fight to save Democracy is going to be the fight of ALL our lives. 

Viewed through the lens of today’s political climate in the United States, one might adapt the warning of Martin Niemöller: first they came for immigrants, and I did not speak out because I was not an immigrant. Then they came for African Americans, and I did not speak out because I was not African American. Then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak for me.

This is everyone’s fight.  To assume otherwise is to lose Democracy for all.