The National Urban League has issued an urgent warning about the state of civil rights in the United States, declaring a national “state of emergency” in response to sweeping rollbacks enacted under President Donald Trump’s second term.
Unveiled Thursday, July 18, at the organization’s annual State of Black America conference in Cleveland, Ohio, the League’s report paints a stark picture of what it calls a “deliberate dismantling” of civil rights enforcement across nearly every federal agency. Civil rights leaders accuse the Trump administration of accelerating an aggressive political agenda that has already transformed institutions, erased diversity mandates, and injected what the report calls “white nationalist ideology” into the mainstream of American governance.
“This is not random,” said National Urban League President Marc Morial. “It is a well-funded, well-orchestrated movement that is now central to the Republican Party.”
Project 2025 in Focus
At the heart of the report is a blistering critique of Project 2025, a policy blueprint drafted by the conservative Heritage Foundation. The 900-page document has become a guidebook for the Trump administration’s second-term reforms, advising large-scale layoffs of federal employees, weakening of civil rights divisions, and defunding of DEI programs across government and private institutions.
The League warns that Project 2025’s implementation poses an “existential threat” to civil rights enforcement, especially at the Department of Justice, Department of Education, and Department of Housing and Urban Development. These agencies have seen rapid transformations since January, with many long-standing civil rights directives revoked or redefined under “race-neutral” and “merit-based” policy frames.
“If left unchecked,” the report states, “they risk reversing decades of progress that have made America more dynamic, competitive, and just.”
Institutions Under Fire
The report also criticizes major corporations, universities, and law firms for walking back DEI commitments amid mounting political pressure. Social media platforms, including Meta and X (formerly Twitter), were singled out for “censoring Black voices” while enabling “radicalizing” content that has emboldened extremist views.
On Capitol Hill, reaction to the report was swift. Rep. Yvette Clarke (D-NY), chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, said the findings underscore how Trump’s administration has “redefined civil rights gains as reverse racism.”
“There’s a lot of work to be done to unpack that for folks,” Clarke said. “We need to reframe the national conversation.”
Legal Challenges and Resistance
In addition to detailing the erosion of civil rights protections, the Urban League report outlines a growing number of legal challenges to Trump-era policies. Since January, the organization—alongside allied civil rights groups—has filed multiple lawsuits against the administration. Several Democratic state attorneys general, including Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul, have signaled their intention to take legal action when federal rollbacks result in discriminatory outcomes.
“Just because the Trump administration doesn’t believe in disparate impact anymore doesn’t mean the rest of the universe must believe that,” Raoul warned.
Other contributors to the report include Rep. Steve Horsford (D-NV), who accused Trump of “betraying the American people,” and Rep. Shomari Figures (D-AL), who invoked his family’s personal history fighting the Ku Klux Klan as a reminder of how far civil rights advocates have come—and how far they still must go.
“At the end of the day, that struggle boils down to: Can I be treated like everybody else in this country?” Figures said.
From Voting Rights to Authoritarian Concerns
Originally conceived to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, this year’s State of Black America report pivoted in response to Trump’s return to office. The League now sees its primary mission as building “a new resistance” to what it calls a dangerous slide toward authoritarianism.
The Justice Department responded Friday by citing its published civil rights policy, stating it is “enforcing the law as written: fairly, equally, and without political agenda.” But critics remain unconvinced.
“We’re past the point of warning signs,” Morial said. “We are in the emergency now.”
