How The NAACP Legal Defense Fund Is Fighting Back Against DEI Attacks

NAACP’s Legal Defense Fund (LDF) has been organizing with other civil rights groups to challenge anti-DEI.

While some voters are asking Democrats to fight the attacks on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, one organization is fighting back against DEI opponents. NAACP’s Legal Defense Fund (LDF) has been organizing with other civil rights groups to challenge those who are stripping down protections.

LDF is already starting to see some victories in their fight.

“We had a team engaged in Georgia working to oppose an anti-diversity, equity, and inclusion bill there. They successfully defeated it last week,” Amalea Smirniotopoulos told BLACK ENTERPRISE. Smirniotopoulos is leading the Equal Protection Initiative at the NAACP’s LDF.

According to WABE, Georgia Senate Republicans failed to advance the bill that mirrored the Trump administration’s crackdown on DEI programs in schools and universities. The bill would have slashed state funding or state-administered federal funding for public schools or universities with DEI programs.

Smirniotopoulos says this fight is far from over.

“We have been coordinating with civil rights allies to file litigation. For example, we filed a lawsuit in February challenging two of the anti-diversity executive orders and the anti-transgender order,” says Smirniotopoulos.

“We also have a motion for a preliminary injunction that would prevent the government from implementing those orders. It will be heard in court next week.”

What The Legal Defense Fund Says Is At Stake

Following the Supreme Court’s decision on Students for Fair Admission, which ruled that the use of race in higher education is unconstitutional, LDF launched the Equal Protection Initiative. LDF launched the initiative because civil rights advocates saw the writing on the wall that civil rights across industries would be weaponized. The initiative pushes back on these attacks with litigation, policy research, and other techniques.

“I worry about the chilling effect of the Trump’s executive orders and the actions that we see coming out of federal agencies, including the Department of Education, and what that means for people in their daily lives,” she said.

“We know, based on social science research, that it’s important for students to feel like they can belong, that they can see themselves in their curriculum, that they can find community in their schools to be able to learn effectively.”

She added, “there have been studies that have documented that racial discrimination costs the economy overall to the tune of trillions of dollars.”