“The Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), assisted by the Attorney General and the Director of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), shall coordinate the termination of all discriminatory programs, including illegal DEI and ‘diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility’ (DEIA) mandates, policies, programs, preferences, and activities in the Federal Government, under whatever name they appear.”
— President Donald Trump, Executive Order 14151, Jan. 20.
February is Black History Month, set aside to honor the history of African-Americans. February was chosen to also honor abolitionist Frederick Douglass and President Abraham Lincoln, whose birthdays are this month.
Some people believe dedicating a month to Black history is somehow un-American. They’ve forgotten what Black Americans had to endure for centuries. For many Black people, even the most routine activities could be dangerous.
On May 17, 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Brown vs. Board of Education that segregated schools were unconstitutional. In 1957, the Little Rock, Arkansas, school board started integrating their schools, beginning with high school.
On Sept. 4, 1957, nine black students attempted to enroll at Little Rock High School. Arkansas Gov. Orval Faubus deployed the Arkansas National Guard to prevent these nine students from attending.
At the end of September 1957, President Dwight Eisenhower deployed the 101st Airborne Division and later nationalized the Arkansas National Guard to protect these students. The students were allowed to attend classes but endured ongoing verbal and physical harassment. This was 68 years ago, not ancient history.
In 1960, the Bridges family in New Orleans sent their six-year-old daughter Ruby to first grade. Nothing unusual, except Ruby was Black and the school was a white school. White parents pulled their children out of school and white teachers refused to teach. For her safety, this little girl was escorted to school by U.S. Marshals. The school brought in a teacher from Massachusetts. For the whole year, Ruby and her teacher were alone in her classroom.
By the end of the year, the protests had subsided, but the Bridges family faced serious consequences for their decision. Mr. Bridges lost his job. All because they sent their little girl to school.
In 1958, a young couple in Virginia was jailed. Their crime? Getting married. Richard Loving was white and his wife Mildred was black. In 1958, inter-racial marriage was illegal in 24 states, violating the Racial Integrity Act of 1924. The Lovings were sentenced to a year in prison unless they left the state.
In 1967, the Lovings took their case to the U.S. Supreme Court. On June 12, 1967, the court ruled that the law was unconstitutional. Until then, all inter-racial couples were criminals if they entered certain U.S. states.
There are so many more stories like these, such as the three civil rights workers who were murdered for helping black people register to vote in Mississippi in 1964. Throughout our history, black and white Americans have fought, bled and died trying to give everyone equal opportunity to achieve their goals. Now President Donald Trump is trying to roll back all that progress.
He claims to want hiring based on excellence and merit alone, but his actions show that’s not his real goal. His Cabinet nominees are some of the most inept in our history. When hiring workers for his administration, the first questions are not about qualifications and experience, but about loyalty to Trump.
A recent cartoon showed Trump trying to cut the phrase “all men are created equal” out of the Declaration of Independence. On Jan. 21, he revoked Executive Order 11246, signed by President Lyndon Johnson in 1965.
This policy required the government to “take affirmative action to ensure that applicants are employed, and employees are treated during employment, without regard to their race, creed, color, or national origin.” This was not a quota system; it was to fight discrimination. Trump killed it.
Diversity and equality do not harm our country; they make it stronger. Maryland Democratic state lawmaker Ashanti Martinez said it perfectly. “We must reject attempts to attack DEI and instead champion policies that expand access to the American Dream for every community. This is not just a moral imperative — it’s essential to the health of our economy and communities. You shouldn’t have to be a Billionaire to achieve your dreams in this country.” (USA Today, Jan. 26)
If our government is truly to be “of the people, by the people, for the people,” this should be our goal, during Black History Month and every day.
Jeanette Strong, whose column appears every other week, is a Nevada Press Foundation award-winning columnist. She may be reached at news@lahontanvalleynews.com.