‘It is on and poppin’: Leaders prepare for battle against Trump administration hostile to civil rights

During his first and successful run for president in 2016, Donald Trump asked Black Americans, “What do you have to lose?” Lawyers and civil rights leaders say they stand to lose a lot in Trump’s second presidential administration.

In anticipation of what Trump has already vowed to do, groups are gearing up for a fight to prevent the further erosion of civil rights under the president-elect’s incoming second administration. 

“It is on and poppin’ and not in a good way,” said Damon Hewitt, president and executive director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.

Hewitt anticipates court battles over the Trump administration’s efforts to roll back rights impacting Black and Brown communities. Some could find their way into federal courts with conservative judges, including the Supreme Court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority thanks to Trump’s three nominations during his first term. Not to mention, Trump will have the executive power to install more conservative judges to the federal bench.

Hewitt also noted challenges with the trial and appellate courts. He thinks the dismantling of DEI in federal programs will not only result in litigation but also “fuel” private sector attacks.

”If Trump actually goes through with his plans, he will face an avalanche of lawsuits,” Keith Boykin, former White House aide to President Bill Clinton and author of “Why Does Everything Have to Be About Race?” told theGrio.

“Civil rights groups will sue to stop his mass deportations, stop-and-frisk policies, police immunity proposals, cuts to Head Start and school lunch programs, and his plan to pay ‘restitution’ to white people he thinks are victims of DEI,” Boykin explained.

Rights leaders hope they are not alone in the battle, urging corporate America to fight back, too. 

There is a “familiarity” to the pushback on civil rights, said Hewitt, whose Lawyers’ Committee was formed at the request of President John F. Kennedy amid the civil rights era in 1963. However, he told theGrio, “We will be foolish to think we have tread this ground before.” 

He emphasized the presidencies of previous Republicans – Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, George W. Bush and Trump – have been an injurious combination of “pain and policy.”

Leon W. Russell, chair of the NAACP Board of Directors, told theGrio, “We will focus our legal efforts on protecting established programs and rights in the courts. He continued, “The organization’s effort will work in collaboration with other Civil Rights and civil liberties organizations to defend laws, programs and protections. We will be proactive rather than reactive.”

“It is obvious that, based on the presidential campaign and the composition of the incoming cabinet, there will be a challenge to the civil and human rights gains made in this country over the past seventy years,” said Russell, who also pointed to what civil rights leaders see as dangerous proposals in the pro-Trump conservative blueprint, Project 2025.

The NAACP has a game plan that Russell says the nation’s oldest civil rights organization “will meet.”

“First, we will develop the strongest possible legislative advocacy,” he said. The next step, said Russell, is working with Congress “in collaboration with our partner organizations to ensure that we have a strong legislative program.” 

He added, “The states have a role to play in working with our state conferences and local units to strengthen their advocacy efforts within the state and local legislative processes to protect and strengthen civil and human rights protections.”