Rosa, Resistance, and Our Civil Rights

This year’s commemoration of Rosa Parks’ birthday and National Transit Equity Week takes place under the shadow of radical efforts to erase the gains of the civil rights movement and gut public services. Under the guise of ending DEI initiatives, the Trump administration is working to dismantle the legacy and tools of modern civil rights campaigns.

The Department of Transportation (DOT) issued a new order that prioritizes funding for communities with higher marriage and birth rates than the national average. The criteria systematically disadvantage diverse metropolitan areas while favoring suburban and rural road projects, representing a calculated effort to redirect transportation investments from public transit to highway expansion. This shift undermines decades of work to create more equitable transportation systems and disproportionately impacts urban communities of color. Programs that support Black and Brown-owned businesses are being rolled back, and it’s likely that an attempt will be made to weaken Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination based on race, color, or national origin when federal funds are used for a project or program.

President Clinton’s executive order on environmental justice, which requires an equity analysis on impacts to low-income populations, may also be on the chopping block. This type of tool was instrumental in the victory by Urban Habitat and our allies to redirect $70 million in funds from the Oakland Airport Connector Project based on a Title IV Civil Rights administrative complaint.

The new administration’s broader intent is to erase the progress of our movements for racial and social justice. Specifically, their new policies aim to hinder efforts by Black political organizers and their allies to build a multiracial coalition that both addresses the economic priorities of the working class and fights against racial and other forms of oppression.

The recently released report, Working Families Ride the Bus, provides a very different vision for our country. It includes stories of 21 union workers and their families from across 19 states. In their stories, workers share vivid accounts of their experiences using public transit, what having access to it means for their families, and how increased investments in services and infrastructure would make a difference in their lives.

The legacy and lessons of the civil rights movement are more relevant than ever as we organize to counter fascism and continue building our movements for a better world.