During his first and successful presidential campaign in 2016. Donald Trump asked Black Americans, “What do you have to lose?” Lawyers and civil rights leaders say they’ve quite a bit to lose in a second Trump presidential administration.

In anticipation of what Trump has already promised, groups are preparing to fight to prevent further erosion of civil rights under the president-elect’s latest administration.

“It’s alive and well, but 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 strip away laws affecting Black and brown communities. Some could find yourself in 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 that Trump can have the chief power to install more conservative judges on the federal bench.

Hewitt also noted the challenges facing trial and appellate courts. He believes that eliminating DEI from federal programs won’t only lead to litigation but additionally “fuel” attacks on the private sector.

“Civil rights organizations will ask the court 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 ‘reparations’ to white people he considers victims of DEI,” Boykin explained .

Human rights leaders hope they aren’t alone on this fight and are calling on corporate America to join the fight as well.

He emphasized that the presidencies of previous Republicans – Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, George W. Bush and Trump – were a harmful combination of “pain and politics.”

“It is clear that, judging by the presidential campaign and the makeup of the new Cabinet, the gains in this country on civil and human rights over the last seventy years will be challenging,” said Russell, who also noted what civil rights leaders imagine for the harmful proposals contained within the pro-Trump conservative “Project 2025” plan.

The NAACP has an motion plan that Russell says the nation’s oldest civil rights organization will “fulfill.”

“First, we will develop the strongest possible legislative support,” he said. The next step, Russell said, is to work with Congress “in partnership with our partner organizations to ensure we have a strong legislative agenda.”

He added: “States have a role to play in working with our state conferences and local entities to strengthen their advocacy efforts through state and local legislative processes to protect and strengthen civil and human rights protections.”

Miss Nigeria, runner-up Miss Universe 2024 competitionresponded to a number of controversial comments from the Miss Universe CEO regarding diversity in the pageant.

On November 16 in Mexico, Miss Denmark, Victoria Kjaer Theilvig, was crowned the winner of this yr’s international pageant, marking the first time in the 73-year history of the pageant that a contestant from Denmark won.

Miss Universe CEO Anne Jakrajutatip joined Theilvig at the post-pageant press conference, and it was her response to a reporter’s query about the pageant’s progress on diversity that sparked the intense backlash:

“Evolution? We have blonde and blue eyes, so we are already at the final evolution,” said Jakrajutatip. “We don’t need any further evolution here. We already have the best here.”

In response to Jakrajutatip’s comments, Miss Universe first runner-up Chidimma Adetshina, who became the first Miss Nigeria to make it to the top five of the pageant, he told Business Insider She wasn’t offended by the comments.

“It doesn’t offend me at all,” she said. “Maybe it’s just her point of view; maybe that was how she thought about the evolution of Miss Universe.”

Jakrajutatype too got here under fire Down sharing post X which Donald Trump Jr. did about Thielvig’s victory.

“Biological and objectively attractive women can win beauty pageants again. WE WILL BE BACK,” Trump Jr. wrote. in October 18th.

Miss Universe co-owner Raul Rocha, who acquired a 50 percent stake in the Miss Universe organization in January, also shared Trump Jr.’s post. on his Instagram page.

Adetshina said she felt disheartened by Trump Jr.’s remarks.

“All crowned queens are beautiful in their own way, so by making a comment like that, I feel like he was disrespecting all the previous queens,” Adetshina said. “I understand why people didn’t like that comment and why it caused a spark on social media.”

When Jakrajutatip, a brown-haired, brown-eyed transgender woman from Thailand, took over the organization in 2022, its recent owner brought recent guarantees of evolution for the next generation and expressed interest in making the competition more inclusive.

Under her leadership, moms and married, divorced or pregnant women were allowed to compete, as were women over the age of 28.

However, there have been other controversies which have raised questions on whether Jakrajutatip’s guarantees to renew the brand are real or simply for show.

Leaked footage from a Miss Universe staff meeting in October 2023 has been posted online, showing Jakrajutatip discussing various contestants.

“Transgender women, women with husbands, divorced women… They can compete, but they can’t win. But we simply published this policy to ensure inclusivity,” she said, adding that it was a “communication strategy.”

Jakrajutatip responded to the video’s spread on the web, stating in: Post on Facebook that it was “taken out of context and used to manipulate other people, resulting in public confusion, misunderstandings, misinterpretations and erroneous conclusions.”

She stated that the topic she discussed with her staff at that meeting was a possible Miss Universe reality show, not a world pageant.

When Donald Trump is sworn in because the forty seventh president of the United States at his inauguration on January 20, 2025, it would coincidentally fall on the federal holiday honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Supporters of Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump’s Democratic opponent within the 2024 presidential election, had hoped that the day would as a substitute be a historic moment in Black history, with Harris being sworn in as the primary Black female president and only the second Black president in 248 -year history of the nation.

For many, the contrast between Trump’s inauguration and MLK Day is stark, considering Dr. King could be politically against Trump’s MAGA program.

King’s daughter, Dr. Bernice King, said that while there may be a “stark contrast” between her father’s ethos of “love and justice” and Trump’s record that “sanctions hatred and injustice,” she is “gratified” that the 2 events happened collide .

“The moment of the inauguration on MLK Day is a powerful reminder of the values ​​my father represented – unity, equality and non-violence. It challenges us to reflect on our leadership and the direction we are heading as a nation.” he said Bernice King in a public statement.

She continued: “The inauguration coinciding with my father’s day is not about comparing individuals, but about all leaders upholding the standards of love and justice that Dr. King exemplified. This is a call to uphold these enduring values ​​in our leadership and governance.”

Civil rights leaders have expressed concerns a couple of second Trump administration, given Trump’s vow to ban equity programs aimed toward eliminating long-standing racial disparities that may impact Black and brown Americans within the areas of business, education, health care and housing.

Bernice King described Trump as “someone who spreads hateful rhetoric” eloquent The independent president-elect “has not been very kind” and that his “policies are not humane.”

Wiley added: “We have seen him announce mass deportations that, frankly, will focus on communities of color. “We already know what he has promised to do, including using the military against his own citizens… all of this will become very real, very soon.”

“While MLK Day is a vacation, it has at all times been a day of re-engagement and acknowledgment that the work just isn’t yet done. Donald Trump’s second inauguration will probably be a stark reminder of that fact,” Batchelor said.

He continued: “A country that can on the same day celebrate a national holiday honoring a freedom fighter and hand over the presidency to an authoritarian peddler of white nationalism is a country still at war with its identity.”

Batchelor said Jan. 20 is the time when the United States must ask itself: “What form of country do we would like to grow to be? King’s dream or Donald Trump’s nightmare scenario?

He added: “This should also galvanize us into action. It should inspire us to take up the mantle of protest, peaceful resistance, social and economic justice, and radical love in the face of noisy hatred.”