Trump rolls back bedrock civil rights measure in sweeping anti-DEI push

Zoom out: Trump's order revokes one that President Johnson signed on September 24, 1965, more than two years after the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. gave his "I Have A Dream" speech at the Lincoln Memorial.

• LBJ's order gave the Secretary of Labor the authority to ensure equal opportunity for people of color and women in federal contractors' recruitment, hiring, training and other employment practices.
• It required federal contractors to refrain from employment discrimination and take affirmative action to ensure equal opportunity "based on race, color, religion, and national origin."
• The order came more than a year after Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and just months after he signed the Voting Rights Act following violent attacks on voting rights advocates in Selma, Ala.

The intrigue: The reversal comes after six GOP presidents — including Trump during his first term — kept the Johnson executive order in place, while others expanded it through amendments.

• Segregationists during Johnson's time opposed the executive order.
• Conservatives since have voiced opposition to it, over claims it forced federal contractors to adopt a "quota system" for employees.
• It also comes just as Chuck Robbins, the CEO of Cisco and head of the influential Business Roundtable, defended the value of DEI at his company in an Axios interview in Davos.

What they're saying: Civil rights advocates were anticipating this move. Rev. William Barber of the Repairers of the Breach told Axios beforehand that Johnson's executive order was needed to fight discrimination of that era and is still needed today.

• "It would significantly erode a civil rights enforcement tool that has been essential, in particular for women's progress," Jocelyn Frye, president of the advocacy group National Partnership for Women & Families, told Axios before Trump's order was issued.
• "It sends a message and gives a green light to contractors that nobody is watching."

Zoom in: Trump's order directs all "executive departments and agencies (agencies) to terminate all discriminatory and illegal preferences, mandates, policies, programs, activities, guidance, regulations, enforcement actions, consent orders, and requirements."

• And it extends out to the private sector: "I further order all agencies to enforce our longstanding civil-rights laws and to combat illegal private-sector DEI preferences, mandates, policies, programs."
• "The Federal Government is charged with enforcing our civil-rights laws.  The purpose of this order is to ensure that it does so by ending illegal preferences and discrimination."
• It goes a step further and orders federal agencies to compile lists of public companies, universities and large foundations for investigations and possible civil action over their DEI programs.

Between the lines: Close Trump allies want to dramatically change the government's interpretation of Civil Rights-era laws to focus on "anti-white racism" rather than discrimination against people of color, Axios' Alex Thompson has reported.

The bottom line: Corporations had already been rolling back diversity programs and policies in response from attacks from conservative groups — including White House aide Stephen Miller, who filed multiple lawsuits over corporate DEI at his group America First Legal.

• While some may push back, expect many to run even harder from those programs now.

Editor's Note: The story has been corrected to say six GOP presidents (not five) kept President Johnson's executive order in place.