Above: Examples of the Trump administration's attempts to stop DEI programming; A federal website for the U.S. Office of Personnel Management related to diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility that was removed (captured by Emily Scherer/The 19th) (top) and an announcement by the Department of Education that they are eliminating all DEI programs (bottom).
Through a series of executive orders and federal actions (including the whitewashing of historical sites and parks), the Trump administration has waged a war on "DEI," or diversity, equity, and inclusion programs. Republicans in Congress have submitted legislation to codify these bans on DEI programming.
Yet, DEI is as old as the United States itself and these actions are thinly veiled attempts to embed racist, sexist, anti-queer, anti-trans, and anti-immigrant policies within the federal government and influence state governments to do the same. Attempts to ban DEI programs are unjust, anti-democratic, and, as I will show, un-American; teachers should approach it as such.
This post discusses the history of DEI programs in the United States (even if they were not always referred to by that specific acronym). It also discusses that these programs have always faced attacks from those who wanted to maintain oppression and the status quo, and offers ways that social studies teachers may use this history to better help their students understand the current anti-DEI political context.
What Are DEI Programs?
- Diversity - embracing the differences everyone brings to the table, while acknowledging the benefit of the multiple perspectives, ideas, and solutions provided when individuals with different backgrounds, identities, and views collaborate and are heard.
- Equity - treating everyone fairly and providing opportunities for everyone to succeed, considering their traits, including resources, support, and potential accommodations to help those with disabilities thrive in the workplace.
- Inclusion - creating an environment where people of all backgrounds can thrive and contribute to their fullest potential. (From the NAACP definition; see their page on DEI here)
In the United States, there is strong evidence that people of color, women, queer people, people with disabilities, and immigrants face significant barriers. Black, Latino, and Native people have an increasing unemployment rate that is much higher than the white population. Women are half of the population, but only 11% of CEOs and only 28% of people serving in Congress. People with disabilities earn less on average than people without disabilities. LGBTQ people experience discrimination at higher rates than their straight and cisgender peers.
To address the many social disparities that exist, DEI programs may involve workplace trainings, data-based analyzes, recruitment initiatives, education, and awareness campaigns. While DEI programs are important first steps to understanding how people from different groups may be treated, they are not the ultimate goal. Rather, the goal is justice and fairness in all aspects of our society. If and only when that is accomplished, will the need for DEI programs be unnecessary.
History of DEI Programs
While the specific acronym of DEI or "diversity, equity, and inclusion" likely originated in the early 2000s, the United States has had diversity programs since its founding. However, these diversity programs have historically increased in moments when the United States was forced by justice activists and movements to confront its longstanding discrimination and oppression of certain social groups. Below presents a timeline by century of some of these "DEI" programs.
The Early Republic
The United States declared its independence from Great Britain by stating that "all men are created equal" with the rights of "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." This statement gave birth to the idea of equity, diversity, and inclusion. While not all Americans interpreted it as such (certainly, many white men in power excluded women, Indigenous, Black, and other people from these lines), civil rights groups, including abolitionists and suffragists, from the start referenced the Declaration of Independence as to why their movements were just (here is another excellent piece on the topic from historian Annette Gordon-Reed). Black citizens of Massachusetts, seizing on the words of the Declaration of Independence, petitioned their state to abolish slavery in 1777.
In fact, DEI may even pre-date U.S. independence, as Anthony Benezet may have started the first educational DEI program when he established several different Philadelphia schools in the 1750s that specifically educated enslaved Black people and women, and his attempts to persuade the fellow white men of Philadelphia about the evils of enslavement through public conversations. About a decade later, possibly the first school for Black children was established in Williamsburg, Virginia. In 1798, after numerous rejected petitions to start a school for Black children, Prince Hall opened the African School in Boston. Similarly, women rights activists engages in similar educational and political campaigns to gain equality, which also lead to numerous conventions, meetings, and educational programs that advocated for gender equality. The first schools for girls was established at Salem Academy in North Carolina in 1772 and the Young Ladies Academy of Philadelphia in 1787, which was followed by a significant increase in educational opportunities for women in the early 1800s.
Yet, these early DEI programs also faced attacks from the white majority. For instance, as anti-slavery began to gain more national attention, in 1835 and 1838 respectively, pro-slavery mobs in Boston and Philadelphia attacked abolitionist meetings. To prevent the spread of anti-slavery ideas, many southern states passed anti-literacy laws targeting enslaved African Americans. In many ways, these were the first anti-DEI movements. Today, DEI opponents have not resorted to violence, many of the same tactics, including book bans and harassment of DEI proponents, still occurs.
Post-Civil War
As the Civil War broke out over slavery, DEI programs again increased. During the war, the Union army created several programs to specifically recruit Black soldiers, including the United States Colored Troops (and the Massachusetts 54th Regiment) and women's rights activists committed to the cause also found ways to spread messages of gender equality. The federal government created numerous DEI programs during Reconstruction, including the Freedman's Bureau (including schools for formerly enslaved Black children and what became HBCUs).
With the passage of the 13th, 14th, 15th Amendments (and a series of civil rights acts passed by congress in the 1860s and 1870s), African Americans gained important constitutional protections. This lead to more advocacy around DEI. Specifically, African Americans, such as W.E.B. Du Bois and Carter G. Woodson, began advocating for Black educational opportunities and the teaching of Black history in schools (ironically, in a recent visit to the Carter G. Woodson House in Washington, D.C., I noticed this anti-DEI sign on its door that include this statement).
Much like the DEI work being done during the Early Republic, there was also a backlash from supporters of white supremacy, patriarchy, and other forms of oppression. The period after Reconstruction may have seen the largest backlash against equality and DEI efforts were the main target. This is the era of Jim Crow laws, the creation of the Ku Klux Klan, and legal restrictions on Black people. It is in this context, and 30 years after the Civil War, that southern white people erected statutes to enslavers and Confederates and added the Confederate battle flag to state flags (such as Mississippi in 1894 and Georgia in 1956; Georgia currently has a flag based on the Stars-and-Bars first flag of the Confederacy).
20th Century
In the 20th Century, DEI had two larger waves. The first coincided with the Great Migration of Black Americans to the north and changing social views due to rapid urbanization. During this period, many Black intellectuals helped establish a movement referred to as the New Negro Movement (popularized by the writings of philosopher Alain LeRoy Locke) with associated educational programs. This is the same era that Black History Week (later Black History Month) and African American-centered curriculum began to take hold in some schools). Meanwhile, queer communities began to form, which offered places and spaces of greater safety. Women gained voting rights and greater acceptance in the workforce.
By mid-century, with the successes of the modern Civil Rights Movement, queer rights, immigrant rights, and disabilities rights activists, the federal government began to codify DEI efforts, including the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Affirmative Action, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and programs for people with dis/abilities. In education, some schools started to focus on multicultural education, ethnic studies, and the creation of student affinity groups and programs to support women students. The creation of southern Freedom Schools in 1964 and the Black Panther Party's various social programs are just a few other examples.
Throughout the 20th century, DEI efforts were again attacked by those wanting the maintain the status quo. Throughout much of the 20th century, white supremacist groups terrorized people of color and conservative courts limited the power of civil rights protections. In more nuanced ways, corporations protested laws related to diversifying the workforce, and when diversity programs were implemented, they were often superficial. Reagan attempted to undo Affirmative Action programs altogether during his presidency (which the Supreme Court later helping accomplish this in education with ramifications for other aspects of American life).
Why the Attacks on DEI Programs Today and What to Do About It in the Classroom?
Current attacks on DEI programming are yet another attempt to stop any recent progress related to fairness for people of color, women, immigrant, queer, trans people and people with disabilities. Rightwing extremists and conservative lawmakers are attempting to regress society to a pre-Civil Rights Movement era. As recent movements such as Black Lives Matter, Me Too, Stop AAPI Hate, Day Without Immigrants (2006, 2017, and 2025), marriage equality, and transgender rights have started to influence public opinion, reactionary attempts to erase any progress are sure to become even more dominant. There are not only attempts to ban DEI programing in government, education, and work places, but also the government whitewashing of the histories of communities of color, Indigenous communities, women, queer, trans, immigrant, and people with dis/abilities.
So, how do we teach about this? We need to explicitly teach about the long history of all forms of supremacy and erasure, and help students imagine ways to have a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive society in the present and future. It means that we must teach about Native resistence during colonization, Black resistence during enslavement and segregation, and the resistence of Latino, Asian American, queer, immigrant, people with dis/abilities, and women to unfair and unjust treatment and government policies targeting them. It means stopping their erasure from the curriculum. It means specifically teaching about this latest wave of anti-DEI attacks in the context of many previous efforts, why DEI programs are important, and what we can do to be a part of movements for justice in the present.
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