Black History Month carries a deep sense of mourning this year. The Trump administration is systematically erasing the legacy and successes of the Civil Rights Movement and the Long Black Freedom Struggle in what seems to be an effort to return the country to the Gilded Age and Jim and Jane Crow. In practice and symbol, “Make America Great Again” means “Make America White Again.”
But this moment of peril also reveals a great vulnerability for Donald Trump and his MAGA movement. The Civil Rights Movement is the most successful pro-democracy movement in American history — and it provides a roadmap for how Trumpism can be defeated. That is why this history and legacy must be whitewashed and destroyed.
As president and CEO of the NAACP, America’s oldest and largest civil rights organization, Derrick Johnson is well acquainted with the struggles and dangers of this moment. I recently spoke with him about how today’s struggle for American democracy will be a marathon, not a sprint, and why he believes that Trumpism will ultimately be defeated and a better America born from that struggle.
You and I have had an ongoing conversation for several years, and I’ve asked this before. The Age of Trump is dizzying and disorienting. What year is it? Given how we’re being pulled back to some of the darkest parts of American history, there are days when I’m not sure.
It is 2026 on the calendar, but it feels like we are in some alternate universe. There are all these advancements in technology with [artificial intelligence] and data centers everywhere, but we are seeing that same technology being used to limit people’s freedom by using their identities against them and to limit democracy and freedom.
How can we do a better job of explaining how race and class intersect? This is central to helping the American people orient themselves in this confusing time.
Keep it simple. Race is a tool that is used to maintain domination and control in this society. Race is a tool, and class is the buffer. If you can sell a narrative to white Americans that the reason why they’re struggling is because of Black and brown people, or some other minority population or marginalized group, [then] you are moving them to make decisions that will actually harm them too.
In American society, it has been a constant rule that the policy makers and other elites who are hurting working-class and poor white people are hurting working-class and poor Black people too. They use racism and prejudice to distract and distort from what is really happening.
In American society, it has been a constant rule that the policy makers and other elites who are hurting working-class and poor white people are hurting working-class and poor Black people too. They use racism and prejudice to distract and distort from what is really happening.
What does it mean to be an American right now?
It means different things to different people. In Minneapolis, warrantless searches are being used against American citizens [who] are being killed in the street by [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] and the Border Patrol because they are exercising their constitutional rights. Journalists are being arrested for reporting the news. People who are in this country legally are being targeted for deportation and denied their rights. What it means to be American right now is very precarious and contingent. That should never be the case in this country. The Constitution applies to everyone. Due process and equality under the law apply to everyone in this country, regardless of their immigration or citizenship status.
What is the role of the NAACP and similar civil society organizations amid rising authoritarianism? How are you prioritizing your focus and resources?
We got to this horrible place because of an election. But the election was the result of a decades-old movement going back to the New Deal, if not before. Destroying the social safety net and getting rid of any type of progressive taxation, and changing tax policy to protect the rich and the powerful, has long been a goal for the right-wing in this country. We now find ourselves with a trifecta where the Republican Party and the right-wing control all the branches of government.
For the NAACP, the question is how can we impact November’s election? How do we educate and get our people to the polls? African Americans represent 13% of the total population, but in 2024 we only cast a total of 11% of all ballots. We have to increase that number to ensure that our voices are properly heard in terms of what we think this nation could be, what safeguards should be put in place and [to] have policymakers in office who will hold this system accountable.
The NAACP is also using the courts to defend voting rights and to protect the constitutional rights of all people, such as in Minneapolis.
Trump recently ordered the Department of Justice and the FBI to raid Fulton County’s election offices. The surface narrative is that this was about (non-existent) massive voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election. In reality, this is about rigging the midterms and beyond.
The goal of the Trump administration is to get its hands on the voter rolls in all of the states and jurisdictions it sees as standing in its way. That’s why Trump announced that he is going to nationalize elections in 15 states. To that point, they are targeting Fulton County, Georgia, because it is the anchor for statewide votes. In Minneapolis, the administration said they would withdraw ICE if the state turned over the voting rolls. This is all about the midterm elections and the 2028 presidential election. We live in a democracy. We don’t have kings. Our vote is our currency, and the Trump administration is trying to figure out how to undercut the currency of the American people so they can keep a king in place.
The civil rights division is the crown jewel of the Department of Justice. Instead of ensuring that the equal rights of vulnerable and marginalized Americans are protected under the law, it has now been tasked with protecting the rights of white people — and white men in particular — from “reverse discrimination.” This is a cruel joke on the legacy of the Civil Rights Movement. It is surreal.
It is consistent with the Trump administration. The most difficult thing to do is build and govern. The easiest thing to do is to destroy and blame the lack of governing on something else. The Trump administration is taking a sledgehammer to functioning government and democracy.
They are doing this for two reasons. One, government costs money. By destroying the government, they can take that money and give it to the rich and the wealthy.
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Two, effective government provides oversight and holds industry accountable for its actions. Destroying regulatory bodies like the [Environmental Protection Agency], [Department of Agriculture], [Housing and Urban Development] and the civil rights division of the Department of Justice takes away any guardrails or accountability on the powerful.
Minneapolis is under siege by ICE, the Border Patrol and other federal law enforcement. Why has this moment mobilized so many white Americans? Do you think some people are, at least briefly, seeing what Black Americans have long experienced?
Minneapolis has become Ground Zero twice in less than five years. First, there was the killing of George Floyd. To see such police brutality was shocking for many people. The Black Lives Matter movement mobilized people all over the world and from all racial backgrounds. It truly looked like America. Fast forward to the present.
When you personalize it — when the victims are people who look like you, your neighbors, the people you see at the restaurant or supermarket — it becomes more real.
The levels of force being used against people who are not documented — which is a civil offense — is appalling. I celebrate all of the people in Minneapolis and the surrounding areas who are out there protesting in this horribly cold weather to defend the Constitution and our rights.
What advice would you give to the people who are out there protesting and putting their bodies on the line?
Please stay the course. It is their community today, and it could be your community tomorrow. The tools of domination and control will not stop at one’s legal status, citizenship status, ethnic background or racial identity. Such forces will remain in place and be turned against anyone who does not submit and conform. This is less than democratic.
Not everyone needs to be on or can be on the front line. If your job is to support those on the front line is to make coffee, make some damn good coffee, and don’t run out. So it all depends on where you’re situated and your level of fear
As for practical skills, some parts of the country are under siege by ICE, and other parts of the country are not. Be part of the resistance movement. Get in wherever you fit in. Not everyone needs to be on or can be on the front line. If your job is to support those on the front line is to make coffee, make some damn good coffee, and don’t run out. So it all depends on where you’re situated and your level of fear, because overcoming fear is serious.
You want to make sure people are being used in ways where they can be most effective. This is going to be critically important as we mobilize and plan for the upcoming midterm elections and beyond.
Many Americans are already tired, exhausted and broken from Trump’s first year. The sense of learned helplessness is real. How would you rally them?
It’s like running in a marathon. You may have to pause and catch your breath, but you keep running, and you build up those lungs and the muscles in your legs, and you finish the race. We have to build up the confidence of Americans across all of our communities that they actually do have agency and power to effect positive change. In America, [about] 60% of eligible voters use that right. We can’t have a healthy democracy if 40% of the eligible voters are not participating. If those muscles are not used, then they atrophy. We need much more strength if we are to save American democracy.
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What does Black History Month mean right now?
For me it means all the lessons of success, all of the opportunities that we managed to overcome, and the possibilities for the future. As dim as things seem now in America, Black America is a victorious community. We have a track record of succeeding. We should leverage that history to understand and be encouraged, because we will win this race as well.
We can’t go into a fight preparing to lose, but the issue is very much in doubt. American democracy is in big trouble.
I love talking to the elders who are veterans of the Civil Rights Movement. None of them believed that they could win. None of them imagined the advancements they would see in their lifetimes. But all of them continued to work towards that goal — even if it was a relay at times. And that’s the same thing I see here during this time of great crisis. Whether it’s a relay or someone who is going to run the whole marathon, all of us own the future. I truly believe that we will get through this and create a better future. I have confidence in us.
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