DEI and Race

The U.S. Capitol will unveil and display Virginia’s new statue of civil‑rights figure Barbara Rose Johns on Tuesday in Emancipation Hall, replacing the Robert E. Lee statue removed in 2020. The ceremony will include Speaker Mike Johnson, Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Gov. Glenn Youngkin and Virginia’s delegation; the piece by sculptor Steven Weitzman was approved in July by the Architect of the Capitol and the Joint Committee on the Library.

Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D‑Mass.) and Sen. Ed Markey (D‑Mass.), joined by Reps. Yvette Clarke (D‑N.Y.), Pramila Jayapal (D‑Wash.) and Summer Lee (D‑Pa.), reintroduced the AI Civil Rights Act last week to curb biased and discriminatory AI systems, with civil‑rights groups backing the effort. Pressley also used a House Financial Services Committee hearing on Wednesday to argue that AI trained on biased data can exacerbate racial inequities and called for oversight and protections.

Interior Secretary’s Order 3416, issued in a Nov. 25 memo implementing a Trump-era executive order titled "Ending DEI Programs and Gender Ideology Extremism," directs National Park Service gift shops to remove merchandise promoting DEI and related gender-ideology content by a Dec. 19 compliance deadline. The order treats retail items as public-facing content subject to immediate removal if non-compliant, and Interior says the NPS is actively reviewing retail inventories—many of which are run by nonprofit partners—to keep parks focused on preserving resources for all Americans.

The Winooski School District in Vermont received racist and threatening calls and messages after raising the Somali flag on Dec. 5, 2025 to support its Somali students following President Trump’s remarks about Somalis. The district shut some phone lines and its website to protect staff, increased police presence at schools, and is assisting law enforcement with an investigation, while the White House issued a statement defending Trump’s stance and saying schools should fly American flags.

HUD opened a civil-rights investigation on Dec. 11, 2025 into Boston’s housing practices, alleging the city used federal grant assistance for race-based preferences in violation of the Fair Housing Act and Title VI. The agency’s letter to the Mayor’s Office of Housing cites city documents that target outreach to Black and Latinx families and a goal that at least 65% of homeownership opportunities go to BIPOC households, as HUD Secretary Scott Turner vowed to bring Boston into compliance.

Federal prosecutors unsealed a 25‑count indictment on Dec. 11, 2025 charging Tashella Sheri Amore Dickerson, executive director of Black Lives Matter Oklahoma City, with 20 counts of wire fraud and five counts of money laundering for allegedly diverting at least $3.15 million in returned bail checks into her personal accounts from June 2020 to October 2025. DOJ says BLM OKC raised more than $5.6 million via grants routed through fiscal sponsor Alliance for Global Justice and alleges Dickerson used the funds for personal travel, shopping, food deliveries, a vehicle, and six properties while filing misleading reports to AFGJ.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent canceled Biden‑era U.S. Mint Semiquincentennial quarter designs approved for 2026 after the administration determined they omitted Founding Fathers and emphasized DEI themes, and signaled new patriotic designs will be used instead. U.S. Treasurer Brandon Beach confirmed the shift, Fox News Digital published images of the scrapped coins (covering the Declaration, Constitution, abolition, women’s suffrage and civil rights), and noted former Secretary Janet Yellen had previously signed off on the 2026 concepts.

Court filings on Dec. 5 in a lawsuit by Head Start programs in PA, WA, WI and IL reveal emails from HHS directing at least one grantee on Nov. 19 to remove nearly 200 words and phrases — including 'disability,' 'women,' 'accessible,' and 'Black' — from a funding renewal application or risk denial. Plaintiffs argue the Trump administration’s DEI ban conflicts with the Head Start Act’s mandates for inclusive, culturally and linguistically appropriate services; HHS did not comment, and it’s unclear how widely this guidance was applied.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio ordered all State Department offices worldwide to switch official documents from Calibri back to Times New Roman in 14‑point font, effective Wednesday, reversing a 2023 change made under Antony Blinken. The department told NPR that consistent formatting supports a unified identity, while Rubio’s cable framed the prior switch as a DEI‑driven decision; accessibility experts warn serif fonts can be harder to read for people with dyslexia or low vision.

The Cincinnati City Council approved an $8.1 million settlement on Dec. 10, 2025 with 479 non‑violent protesters arrested during May 30–June 8, 2020 racial‑justice demonstrations, resolving claims of police brutality, wrongful arrests, inhumane jail conditions and unlawful property seizures. Hamilton County, whose sheriff and jail were also named, will contribute $65,000, with the city paying the remainder; all curfew misdemeanor charges were previously dismissed amid conflicting court rulings.