Black Employment in Federal Leadership Rolled Back Under Trump

For many Black public servants, the Trump administration’s dismissal of key Black officials has felt like a targeted effort to erase hard-won representation within the highest levels of government. Robert E. Primus, who led the Surface Transportation Board, discovered he had been fired through an abrupt email, not a conversation. “I didn’t see it coming at all,” he said, later reflecting that maybe the administration believed “this job was not intended for Blacks.” His firing wasn’t an isolated event—it marked part of a broader shift as Trump dismantled diversity initiatives across federal agencies.

Within his first 200 days, Trump appointed 98 senior officials confirmed by the Senate—only two were Black. Dedrick Asante-Muhammad of the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies argued that Trump’s approach was clear: “He seemed proud to have ‘Blacks for Trump’ at rallies, but not behind him in cabinet meetings.” This absence matters. “When we’re not in the room,” he warned, “things don’t tend to go better for us.”

One of the most symbolic dismissals was Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr., the nation’s second Black chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who was removed despite longstanding tradition that military leadership transcends administrations. He was replaced by a white general with little national profile. Carla Hayden, the first Black and first woman Librarian of Congress, received her termination notice via text. “I’ve never been fired before,” she told colleagues in disbelief. She later learned her removal was blamed on supposed “concerning things” tied to inclusion efforts—claims she rejected.

Gwynne Wilcox, the first Black woman to sit on the National Labor Relations Board, was told she was removed without cause. “We had targets on our backs… by virtue of the color of our skin,” she said. She is fighting her dismissal in court not only for herself, but for American workers whose cases are now stalled without a functioning board.

Historian Frederick Gooding Jr. warned that this rollback amounts to “resegregation of the workforce,” threatening decades of progress. As one dismissed official put it plainly: “I had to fight this. Not just for me, but for working people.”

Link: The New York Times