The current administration is executing a vicious attack on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion programs, many of which benefit Black people in the United States. These programs were initiated because of the God-Sanctioned African American Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s and 1970s. There was a resurgence of these programs after George Floyd was killed as a part of the anti-racist initiatives educational institutions and corporations. There are also many K-12 schools and school systems that adopted culturally responsive educational programs that center and affirm the cultures of students who are from marginalized ethnic groups, particularly Black students. On April 3rd, 2025, the day before the 57th anniversary of the assassination of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the Trump Administration announced that all K-12 public schools in the United States are required to sign a certification against "DEI" or lose federal funding (that all are dependent on). Click here to read more This is the ultimate blow. This governmental decree says that anything interpreted as Diversity Equity and Inclusion has been outlawed by the federal government including Black history classes and programs, including Black History Month, Africa awareness initiatives, Dr. King celebrations, culturally responsive or multi cultural educational programming, Hispanic History month, and all other kinds of programming designed to center and include in education the experiences of students from marginalized ethnic groups. Actions like this have already happened on a microcosmic level in some states. If not stopped, then this administration will continue to lead the United States full throttle into a new era of Jim Crow/Racial Apartheid, by perversely using the very Civil Rights laws that were used to end the twentieth century Jim Crow laws. This must not be. The Esther Movement is a prayer and social justice ministry led by Black women concerning these issues. We are praying against the laws, decrees, executive actions and other harmful policies aimed at stopping the progress of the Civil Rights Movement in education, and other pertinent areas, that are being enacted to harm people of color, particularly African Americans and other Afro-descendants, in the United States. We demand - that children of color, particularly African American children, receive culturally responsive education that centers and affirms their history, heritage and cultural experiences. We demand - that all K-12 students receive equitable, effective, multi-cultural public school education in all subjects, especially in the arts, that affirms their cultural experiences, that teaches them to appreciate and respect differences in others, and that gives them exposure to cultures and lifeways of ethnic groups across the globe. We demand - that all K-12 African American students, who have been historically marginalized, receive education in public schools that corrects the historical exclusion of African American culture, history and contributions from curricula and that corrects the continual misrepresentation of Afro-descendants in the US media. *The adinkra symbol in our logo is Asante from Ghana. In the Twi language it is pronounced Dwennimmen, which means “the horns of a ram.” It represents strength (in mind, body, and soul), humility, wisdom, and learning. We use this adinkra symbol because we assume a posture of humility while seeking wisdom and understanding towards strategies to advocate for our young people and to cover them in prayer. We also use this adinkra symbol, with use permission granted to African Americans by the Asantehene of the Asante Nation, because as Black women we are proud of our African ethnicities and heritage.
