Legacy Civil Rights Organizations Denounce President Trump's False Claims About the State of the Union, Vow to Continue Fighting for Black America
February 25, 2026 – Last night, President Trump used his State of the Union address to paint a picture of a country experiencing previously unheard-of levels of success and prestige. In a speech riddled with disinformation and half-truths, the President declared that his leadership has brought newfound safety, security, and prosperity to the American people. For Black people in America, the story the President told could not be further from the truth.
By nearly every measure, the Trump administration has made life harder for Black people in America. The Black unemployment rate is now 7.2%, nearly double the national average of 4.2%. Over 300,000 Black women lost or left jobs in 2025, with the largest losses among college graduates and public-sector workers. Many remain unemployed. High housing prices, limited housing availability, and a growing racial wealth gap have caused home ownership rates for Black people to decline. Because of the administration’s healthcare policy, millions of people will experience either loss of coverage or unconscionably high premiums. Programs stood up by previous administrations to close the digital divide and assist small businesses have been canceled, gutted, or placed on hold. At the same time, costs continue to rise. President Trump’s unlawful tariffs have cost consumers and small businesses hundreds of billions of dollars.
Notably absent from the speech was any mention of unidentified masked agents who drive through our streets in unmarked vans, using supercharged surveillance technologies, demanding citizenship papers, detaining people based on the color of their skin, and killing peaceful observers who show up for their neighbors. Instead, the President made baseless claims about “Somali pirates” in Minnesota, targeting a Black immigrant community to justify his administration’s abuses. The use of militarized law enforcement against Black and immigrant communities is not new, only the latest attempt from the administration to build upon a false narrative of emergency that is rooted in racism and xenophobia. By barring 70% of African and 85% of Caribbean nations through TPS terminations and visa bans, the administration has executed a calculated, race-based assault on the global Black diaspora. While Congress debates limitations to the Department of Homeland Security immigration enforcement apparatus, a massive injection of funds through the Big Ugly Bill continues to power these immigration enforcement abuses. Congress must not keep allowing the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to use its enforcement arms as engines of fear, racialized violence, and wanton civil rights and constitutional abuses. Instead, Congress must claw back this prior funding, institute clear guardrails on immigration enforcement activities, and pass laws that allow the public to sue abusive DHS agents.
And attempts to limit our access to the ballot box under the guise of “election security” remain ongoing. Rather than reckon with the political consequences of his policies, the President spent last night urging the passage of the SAVE America Act, which would deepen existing racial disparities in voter registration and turnout and erect new barriers for the very communities the Voting Rights Act was designed to protect. Furthermore, the SAVE America Act and related bills would act as a poll tax for voters – a policy that was outlawed during the Civil Rights Movement after decades of advocacy – by forcing voters to pay for additional documentation to access the polls. Finally, poor execution and monitoring of the legislation will disproportionately disenfranchise many individuals who–for a host of reasons– have changed their names, due to strict and unreasonable mandates requiring that birth certificates exactly match other forms of identification.
These outcomes are not accidental. The cumulative effect of this administration’s policies is a sustained assault on Black economic and civic power. On his first day in office, President Trump issued an executive order purporting to end the use of diversity, equity, and inclusion in federal decision making. Since then, the attacks on equal opportunity have only increased in size and in scope. Schools, corporations, law firms, state and local governments, and nonprofits have all been subject to intense pressure campaigns and increased scrutiny, pushing some organizations to roll back programs that have helped level the playing field for Black people for decades.
Despite these attacks, we remain more united and committed than ever before. The State of Black America may be under threat, but with clarity and resilience, we persist in our fight to ensure the promise of equal justice and shared prosperity is more than a talking point — it is a lived reality.
Signed By:
National Urban League
National Action Network
National Coalition on Black Civic Participation
NAACP
National Council of Negro Women
Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law
Legal Defense Fund