To Be Equal: Demand Diversity Roundtable to Convene in Response to Incoming Administration’s Threat to DEI
“A second Trump administration intends to abandon efforts to advance and legally defend affirmative action and DEI policies within military academies, federal minority contracting programs, and other federal programs shown to open opportunities—as well as create inclusive education and workplace environments—unfairly denied to people of color, women, and other marginalized groups ... A second Trump administration would not only refuse to enforce civil rights regulations on behalf of individuals from historically marginalized groups, but to actively weaken these protections in housing, education, health care, and other essential resources.”
—Alexis Agathocleous, Kim Conway, ReNika Moore, ACLU
Less than 48 hours after Donald Trump once again becomes President of the United States, a historic coalition of civil and human rights leaders will gather to plan a strategy to defend equal opportunity.
The Demand Diversity Roundtable convenes at 11:30 a.m., Eastern Time, at the National Press Club. A livestream of the event will be available on NUL.org, Facebook, and YouTube.
The lively, rapid-fire, roundtable will focus on confronting the disinformation campaign to discredit diversity, equity, and inclusion, exposing the myths used to divide communities, setting the record straight with facts, and reaffirming participants’ unwavering commitment to justice, unity, and the values that strengthen our nation.
Trump has vowed that on his first day in office, he will revoke President Biden’s executive order on racial equity, and pursue the dismantling of diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives both within the federal government and among private institutions
Project 2025, the policy blueprint Trump is expected to follow, calls for the Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division to “investigate and prosecute all state and local governments, institutions of higher education, corporations, and any other private employers” with diversity, equity, and inclusion policies. It calls for references to “sexual orientation and gender identity” to be deleted from all federal rules, LGBTQ workplace discrimination protections to be sharply limited, and a ban on transgender troops in the U.S. armed forces.
The Demand Diversity Roundtable represents a refusal to remain silent in the face of an unprecedented assault on DEI measures, and a commitment to fostering unity, resilience and proactive leadership in defense of equal opportunity for all.
America’s strength lies in its diversity, and abandoning DEI would endanger the nation's progress and future.
While Trump professed to know nothing about Project 2025 during his campaign, as President Elect he has selected its authors and influencers for key roles in his administration. The agenda is alarmingly hostile to any measures it designates as “woke”—a term the “anti-woke” movement has defined as “the belief there are systemic injustices in American society and the need to address them.” The movement holds that acknowledging discrimination is, in itself, discrimination.
Several organizations that have been designated hate groups by the Southern Poverty Law Center are among Project 2025's advisory board, including Alliance Defending Freedom, infamous for restricting access to the abortion pill and support for anti-LGBTQ+ policies, and Center for Immigration Studies, known for providing a platform for racist writers along and associating with white nationalists.
The incoming administration’s policies, aligned with frameworks like Project 2025, threaten to undermine principles of equal opportunity and roll back progress toward a multiracial democracy. The National Urban League and our co-conveners of the Demand Diversity Roundtable will resist these threats.
—January 17, 2025
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ChildWatch: A Definition of Greatness
“If you want to be important—wonderful. If you want to be recognized—wonderful. If you want to be great—wonderful. But recognize that he who is greatest among you shall be your servant. That’s a new definition of greatness. And this morning, the thing that I like about it: by giving that definition of greatness, it means that everybody can be great, because everybody can serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and your verb agree to serve. You don’t have to know about Plato and Aristotle to serve. You don’t have to know Einstein’s theory of relativity to serve. You don’t have to know the second theory of thermodynamics in physics to serve. You only need a heart full of grace, a soul generated by love.”
As we celebrate the national holiday honoring Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., which coincides with Inauguration Day in Washington, D.C., this year, it is an opportune moment to return to Dr. King’s definition of greatness. The well-known words above are from Dr. King’s sermon “The Drum Major Instinct,” delivered at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta on February 4, 1968. Dr. King was explaining that we all start out with the ingrained instinct to be “drum majors”: everyone wants to be important, to be first, to lead the parade. Watch a group of small children pushing and shoving to form a line and you’ll see this instinct in action. But Dr. King correctly pointed out that too many people never outgrow it—and by placing value on being the most powerful or famous or the wealthiest or best-educated, we forget one of the Gospels’ and life’s largest truths: the real path to greatness is through service.
This is one of the key lessons we should teach children and young people about Dr. King. Many of them have just studied Dr. King in school in the days leading up to his birthday—at least, those whose schools allow lessons on Dr. King’s life and legacy. Young people today often see him as a history book hero, a larger-than-life, mythical figure. But it’s crucial for them to understand Dr. King wasn’t a superhuman with magical powers, but a real person. He gave us a blueprint for true servant-leadership everyone can follow.
I first heard Dr. King speak in person at a Spelman College chapel service during my senior year in college. Dr. King was just 31, but he had already gained a national reputation during the successful Montgomery Bus Boycott five years earlier. He became a mentor and friend. Although I do remember him as a great leader and a hero, I also remember him as someone able to admit how often he was afraid and unsure about his next step. It was his human vulnerability and ability to rise above it that I most remember. “If I Can Help Somebody Along the Way” was his favorite song. He was an ordinary man who made history because he was willing to stand up and serve and make a difference in extraordinary ways, and children and young people need to know that they can and must make a difference too. Everybody can be great, because everybody can serve.
Towards the end of this sermon, Dr. King told the congregation he sometimes thought about his own death and funeral. He said when that day came he didn’t want people to talk about his Nobel Peace Prize or his degrees or hundreds of awards: “I’d like somebody to mention that day that Martin Luther King, Jr., tried to give his life serving others. I’d like for somebody to say that day that Martin Luther King, Jr., tried to love somebody. I want you to say that day that I tried to be right on the war question. I want you to be able to say that day that I did try to feed the hungry. And I want you to be able to say that day that I did try in my life to clothe those who were naked. I want you to say on that day that I did try in my life to visit those who were in prison. I want you to say that I tried to love and serve humanity. Yes, if you want to say that I was a drum major, say that I was a drum major for justice. Say that I was a drum major for peace. I was a drum major for righteousness. And all of the other shallow things will not matter. I won’t have any money to leave behind. I won’t have the fine and luxurious things of life to leave behind. But I just want to leave a committed life behind. And that’s all I want to say.”
Dr. King was assassinated two months to the day after delivering this sermon. But a recording of “The Drum Major Instinct” was played at his funeral at Ebenezer Baptist Church, and many people think of these moving words in Dr. King’s voice as his own eulogy. He knew how he wanted to be remembered. A very similar emphasis on service was echoed in the recent national tributes to President Jimmy Carter. Who among us today will be remembered as servant-leaders, and who will be remembered as drum majors?
Servant-leadership remains the path to true greatness. —January 17, 2025
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