‘Shock Wave’ in Alabama as Some Institutions, Leaders Assess Trump’s Campaign to End DEI Initiatives

The Birmingham Civil Rights Institute Chairman of the Board of Directors is among those expressing alarm as President Donald Trump rolls back Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives. (File)
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The Birmingham Times

Numerous leaders and institutions in Alabama — including The Birmingham Civil Rights Institute (BCRI), a non-partisan, non-political institution, and U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell — are expressing alarm as President Donald Trump rolls back Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives.

“We cannot remain silent over President Donald Trump’s reversal of President Lyndon Johnson’s 1965 Executive Order that promoted equal opportunity for people of color and women in federal contractors’ recruitment, hiring, training and other employment practices,” wrote Rosilyn Houston, Chair, BCRI Board of Directors, in a statement on Sunday. “This is merely the latest shock wave in the relentless rollback of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives at the federal and state levels as well as in the private sector.”

On Saturday, Sewell called on the U.S. Air Force to reinstate a Tuskegee Airmen history video recently removed from the military instruction curriculum following Donald Trump’s executive orders banning (DEI) across the federal government.

“The Tuskegee Airmen bravely fought and died for our freedom before this nation even granted them full benefits of citizenship,” said Sewell, D-Birmingham. “To strip them from the Air Force curriculum is an outrageous betrayal of our values as Americans. Their heroism is not ‘DEI.’ It is American history. I’m calling on the Air Force to immediately reverse this decision. We will not let our history be erased.”

Trump, during his inaugural address Monday, vowed to end federal DEI practices, which he alleges are the government’s efforts to “socially engineer race and gender” into public and private lives. He then signed an executive order aimed to dismantle federal DEI programs.

The decision drew immediate outrage from many groups.

“We stand with federal employees and those in the private sector threatened by this executive order which poses a threat to civil rights and equal opportunity in the workplace for all,” wrote Houston. “There are livelihoods at stake with people on the cusp of losing their jobs, just because the jobs are just. We call on President Trump, the U.S. government, all state governments, and the American private sector to stop the attacks on DEI so that all people can have an opportunity to pursue the American dream.”

In 207, President George W. Bush awarded the Tuskegee Airmen the Congressional Gold Medal in a ceremony at the Capitol Rotunda.

All of the nearly 1,000 Black military pilots who trained in the U.S. during World War II did so in Tuskegee, a city of about 8,700 residents today that is 87 percent Black.

Mark Brown, president and CEO at Tuskegee University, also said “the story of the Tuskegee Airmen is not one of diversity and inclusion rather it’s an American story of the evolution of Air Power and inclusion of all available talent.”

Brown, who spent 32 years in the Air Force culminating as the Deputy Commander of Air Education and Training Command, added, “the Tuskegee Airmen story is truly an American story. Collectively, these experiences help build the world’s greatest Air Force.”

The video, which describes the exploits of the groundbreaking Black airmen trained in Tuskegee during World War II, was part of a DEI-related course taken during basic military training at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, a hub of Air Force training.

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