Urban League declares a ‘state of emergency’ for civil rights in the US in response to Trump
Jul 16, 2025, 9:01 PM
FILE - Marc Morial, center, President and Chief Executive Officer of the National Urban League, talks with reporters outside the West Wing of the White House in Washington, July 8, 2021, following a meeting with President Joe Biden and leadership of top civil rights organizations. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)
Credit: ASSOCIATED PRESS
(AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) 鈥� One of the nation鈥檚 oldest civil rights organizations on Thursday declared a 鈥渟tate of emergency鈥� for antidiscrimination policies, personal freedoms and Black economic advancement in response to President Donald Trump ‘s upending of civil rights precedents and the federal agencies traditionally tasked with enforcing them.
The National Urban League’s annual State of Black America report accuses the federal government of being 鈥渋ncreasingly determined to sacrifice its founding principles鈥� and 鈥渢hreatening to impose a uniform education system and a homogenous workforce that sidelines anyone who doesn鈥檛 fit a narrow, exclusionary mold,” according to a copy obtained by The Associated Press.
“If left unchecked,” the authors write, 鈥渢hey risk reversing decades of progress that have made America more dynamic, competitive, and just.”
The report, to be released Thursday at the group鈥檚 conference in Cleveland, Ohio, criticizes the administration for downsizing federal agencies and programs that enforce civil rights policies. The authors aimed to highlight what they saw as a multiyear, coordinated effort by conservative legal activists, lawmakers and media personalities to undermine civil rights policy and create a political landscape that would enable a hard-right agenda on a range of social and economic policy.
鈥淚t 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. 鈥淔or a long time, people saw white supremacist politics and white nationalism as on the fringe of American politics. It has now become the mainstream of the American right, whose central foundation is within the Republican Party.”
The report directly critiques Project 2025, a sweeping blueprint for conservative governance coordinated by The Heritage Foundation think tank. Project 2025 advised approaches to federal worker layoffs, immigration enforcement and the congressional and legislative branches similar to the Trump administration’s current strategy.
The Urban League report 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 鈥渃ensorship鈥� of Black activists and creatives and content moderation policies that allegedly enabled 鈥渆xtremists鈥� to spread 鈥渞adicalizing鈥� views.
The Trump administration has said many policies implemented by both Democratic and Republican administrations are discriminatory and unconstitutional, arguing that acknowledgments of race and federal and corporate policies that seek to address disparities between different demographics are themselves discriminatory. Trump has signed executive orders banning 鈥渋llegal discrimination鈥� and promoting 鈥渕erit based opportunity.鈥�
Harrison Fields, a White House spokesman, said civil rights groups that oppose the administration 鈥渁ren鈥檛 advancing anything but hate and division, while the president is focused on uniting our country.”
The report, meanwhile, calls for the creation of a 鈥渘ew resistance鈥� to counter the administration鈥檚 agenda. Morial urged other organizations to rally to that cause.
The Urban League and other civil rights groups have repeatedly sued the Trump administration since January. Liberal legal groups and Democratic lawmakers similarly sued over parts of the administration鈥檚 agenda.
Veteran civil rights activists, Black civic leaders, former federal officials, Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul and seven members of Congress, including House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, contributed to the text.
Raoul said that civil rights allies have felt 鈥渙n the defense鈥� in recent years but that now 鈥渋t鈥檚 time to act affirmatively.” For instance, if rollbacks of DEI policies result in discrimination against women or people of color legal action could follow, he warned.
鈥淚t all depends on how they do it. We’re going to be watching,” he said. 鈥淎nd just because the Trump administration doesn’t believe in disparate impact anymore doesn’t mean the rest of the universe must believe that.鈥�
The report criticizes the Trump administration鈥檚 efforts to shutter the Education Department, and denounces changes to programs meant to support communities of color at the departments of Commerce, Health and Human Services and Housing and Urban Development, among others. The transformation of the Justice Department鈥檚civil rights division was singled out as 鈥渁n existential threat to civil rights enforcement.鈥�
The Justice Department pointed to its published civil rights policy and a social media post from its civil rights arm that reads the division 鈥渉as returned to enforcing the law as written: fairly, equally, and without political agenda.鈥�
Nevada Rep. Steve Horsford, a contributor to the report, said Trump 鈥渂etrayed the American people鈥� in enacting plans he said were similar to Project 2025.
Another contributor, Rep. Yvette Clarke, chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, said civil rights advocates and their Democratic allies must do more to communicate with and educate people.
鈥淲hen you have an administration that鈥檚 willing to take civil rights gains and call it reverse racism, then there鈥檚 a lot of work to be done to unpack that for folks,鈥� the New York Democrat said. 鈥淚 think once people understand their connection to civil rights gains, then we will be in a position to build that momentum.鈥�
The Urban League originally planned to focus its report on the legacy of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 for the law鈥檚 60th anniversary but pivoted after Trump returned to office to focus on 鈥渦npacking the threats to our democracy鈥� and steps civil rights advocates are taking to pull the country back from 鈥渢he brink of a dangerous tilt towards authoritarianism.鈥�
For many veteran civil rights activists, the administration’s changes are condemnable but not surprising. Some lawmakers see it as a duty to continue the long struggle for civil rights.
鈥淚 think it鈥檚 all part of the same struggle,” said Rep. Shomari Figures, an Alabama Democrat who contributed to the report and whose father was successfully brought a wrongful-death suit against a branch of the Ku Klux Klan. “At the end of the day, that struggle boils down to: Can I be treated like everybody else in this country?鈥�
