Researchers Predict Trump’s Reversal of Civil Rights Laws Could Hinder Black Americans’ Progress for Years

The Trump administration’s inversion of civil rights laws—which it  recast as a defense against anti-white racism–could impact the nation for decades to come, inflicting the most damage on Black Americans, according to a Rutgers-Newark report.

Rewriting Racial Equality: The State of Civil Rights Law under Trump  documents the second Trump administration’s blueprint for radically transforming how the federal government views and enforces civil rights.

Published by the Center on Law inequality and Metropolitan Equity (CLiME), the report – co-written by Troutt and Senior Research Fellow Anna Griffith – provides a comprehensive examination of executive orders, enforcement activity and litigation since January 20, 2025.

“What we’re seeing is a wholesale reversal of fundamental equations about racial equality that will change this country forever,’’ said David Troutt, director of CLiME.

The administration’s policies and underlying ideology have harmed civil rights for all Americans, said Troutt.  But Black people, who have borne the brunt of inequality since slavery and launched the Civil Rights Movement, stand to lose the most.

“Our fundamental understanding of equality is inextricably tied up with racial justice for Black people. When systemic discrimination occurs, its greatest victims, generation after generation, are Black people as reflected in rates of excess death, incarceration, unemployment, racial wealth gap and exclusion from educational opportunities,’’ said Troutt.

The result of Trump’s policies could lead to a shrinking Black middle class, driven, in part, by a drastic reduction of the federal workforce, which employed many Black workers. It could also trigger the loss of many Black-owned businesses, an uptick in racial profiling, police brutality, and stunt educational outcomes for Black students.

“It has meant the scapegoating and erasure of black intellect, ability and presence from a lot of institutions, particularly in the most visible roles,” said Troutt.  “It presents Black people as lacking in merit and worthiness, which becomes a license to discriminate. Black people become stereotyped by their own federal government as uninvited guests, who have no reason to be there.’’