JACKSON, Miss.—Mississippi House Rep. Zakiya Summers, a Democrat representing Hinds County, warned of “a true effort to roll back everything that we have accomplished since the Civil Rights Movement and even further than that” while speaking on the steps of the Mississippi Capitol earlier this month.
She was there with NAACP members for a rally as part of the organization’s annual Advocacy Day on Feb. 6, where members of the civil rights organization meet lawmakers to lobby for policies related to Black communities.
Education equity, Medicaid expansion and efforts to ban diversity, equity and inclusion programs were among the issues on the mind of Mississippi NAACP leaders as they rallied this year.
“Now is not the time to sit silent. Now is the time to organize and mobilize and let people know that elections have consequences,” Summers said.
Lawmakers Debate ‘Divisive Concepts’ In Schools
The day before members of the NAACP rallied outside the Mississippi Capitol Building, state lawmakers held a lengthy debate over House Bill 1193, a ban on diversity, equity and inclusion programs that House members passed in a 74-41 vote.
If it becomes law, the legislation says it would “prohibit public schools, state-accredited nonpublic schools and public postsecondary educational institutions from creating, promoting and implementing” DEI programs, which are designed to foster fairness and equal participation in public life.
The legislation would also bar schools from maintaining programs that promote or endorse what Hood calls “divisive concepts,” including the use of gender-neutral pronouns, and would require schools to “teach, promote and distribute information based on the scientific policy that there are two genders, male and female.”
Rep. Joey Hood, R-Ackerman, sponsored House Bill 1193. Before the House voted to advance the bill, Ackerman fielded questions and concerns from other lawmakers during a debate at the Mississippi Capitol Building on Feb. 4.
“What is the definition of DEI?” Rep. John Faulkner, D-Holly Springs, asked Hood. The Republican acknowledged that while the introduction of the bill mentions DEI, the bill does not outright define DEI but instead refers to “diversity statements, diversity training and divisive concepts.”
“If we talk about the historical perspective (of DEI), it was put in place to prevent discriminatory practices that we know have been perpetrated on marginalized people in this country for many years,” Faulkner said. “Discrimination was happening all over this country. DEI was put in place to stop that and make sure that there’s a level playing field. But you’re saying in this bill that you want to erase that and it’s going to make it better.”
Hood said he disagreed with Faulkner’s “characterization” of the bill.
‘Cannot Have A Democracy Without Inclusion’
The movement toward diversity, equity and inclusion in the federal government and corporate workplaces can be traced back to the affirmative action initiatives of the 1960s–in response to social movements calling for equal treatment and civil rights.
President John F. Kennedy issued an executive order on March 6, 1961, which included a provision requiring government contractors to “take affirmative action to ensure that applicants are employed, and employees are treated during employment, without regard to their race, creed, color, or national origin,” an article published by the University of California, Irvine says.
“That’s what many people signal as the beginning of the affirmative action era,” Timothy Welbeck, director of Temple University’s Center for Anti-Racism, told NPR on Jan. 26, 2025.
Kennedy’s order, as well as a similar order Lyndon B. Johnson issued in 1965, were meant to signal that “the federal government or federal contractors were not to discriminate against employees or potential employees based on their race, their national origin and other things that we now consider protected classes,” Welbeck explained.
As members of the NAACP stood behind him during the Feb. 6 rally outside the Capitol Building, Mississippi NAACP Executive Director Charles Taylor said DEI has become “this dog whistle noise to mean Black.”
“But the reality is that diversity, equity, and inclusion is just inclusive for all people,” Taylor continued. “It is just making sure that everybody gets their fair share.”
In fact, as Felicia Shanken of the Philadelphia Women’s Network Connection wrote on Jan. 31, while the narrative surrounding DEI policies tends to portray them as “tools to uplift people of color, women, LGBTQ+ individuals, and other marginalized groups … data reveals that the biggest beneficiaries of affirmative action, diversity hiring, and corporate DEI initiatives have been white women.”
“When analyzing chief diversity officer (CDO) positions specifically, white candidates are hired for the lion’s share of these roles,” Janice Gassam Asare wrote for Forbes in 2023. “According to U.S. Census Bureau data compiled by job search site Zippia, in 2021 75% of CDOs were white.”
During his remarks at the Mississippi Capitol, Taylor argued that America is “a country that believes in democracy,” but “how can you have a democracy without diversity?”
“How can you have a democracy without equity? And you absolutely cannot have a democracy without inclusion.”
Other NAACP members erupted in cheers behind him.
‘We Need You Here at This Capitol’
Khalilah Karriem, the president of Jackson State University’s NAACP student chapter, said that the group gathered on Feb. 6 as “not just students, leaders, or advocates, but as protectors of the truth, justice, and the future of our communities.”
She addressed the debate over shifting public education funds to private schools. “Quality education is fundamental in breaking the cycle of poverty and inequality,” she said.
“The current education system often fails to provide equal opportunity for all, particularly in marginalized communities,” Karriem continued. “By advocating for school choice through taxpayer-funded vouchers, we’re not strengthening the public education system. We’re diverting funds away from it.”
The crowd applauded.
Days before the rally, on Feb. 4, the Mississippi House advanced the Flexible and Rightful Education Enrollment Act—a bill that would allow students enrolled in poor-performing public school districts to use their state-funded student allocation to transfer to another public school or a private school.
Taylor Spillman, a spokesperson for House Speaker Jason White, told Mississippi Today at the time that the FREE Act was part of a package of education bills that aligned with President Donald Trump’s executive order promoting “school choice.”
Although that bill died on a legislative deadline on Feb. 13, White insisted in a follow-up interview with the publication that similar legislation would come up.
“School choice, whether anybody in this circle or this Capitol likes it, is coming,” he said on Feb. 12. “You have a president who was elected with a national mandate who has made it one of his top priorities. You have a ruby red state in Mississippi who voted overwhelmingly for President Trump.”
In her remarks on Feb. 6, Karriem also decried stalled efforts to expand Medicaid. “Without Medicaid expansion, families cannot afford basic medical care. Hospitals are closing and entire communities are left without resources they need to survive,” she said.
Last year’s Medicaid expansion bill died after legislators could not come to a compromise over whether or not to include a work requirement as a factor in eligibility.
As the Feb. 6 rally drew to a close, Karriem’s father, Mississippi House Rep. Kabir Karriem, D-Columbus, stepped to the podium, urging the members to continue to engage with lawmakers throughout the months-long legislative session.
“We’re your representatives, but we need you here at this capitol. We need you making phone calls. We need you calling your folks telling them that the agenda that they have is not conducive for Mississippi,” he said.
