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The Chao Auditorium was packed. Students sat on the floor to make room and there was still standing room only. Community members gathered on Oct. 28 for an education about what has been happening to Black students and Black faculty at the University of Louisville.

Ricky Jones addressed the crowd. Jones is the Dr. Charles Parrish Jr. Distinguished University Scholar at Simmons College of Kentucky and Professor of Pan-African Studies at the University of Louisville. This was a Black community mass meeting.

The decision to meet on campus at the Ekstrom Library's Chao Auditorium was purposeful. Jones said, "We very intentionally wanted to meet on this campus tonight, and dare this university to say we couldn't."

This may sound hyperbolic, but when Jones laid out what Black students and faculty have lost in recent years alone, attendees understood that it was a real possibility.

In 2025, following Trump's anti-DEI executive order, the Department of Education sent a letter to educational institutions, beginning "Dear Colleagues," and threatened to withhold federal funds from institutions that did not gut their diversity, equity and inclusion objectives, claiming they were illegal. Jones quipped: "The man ain't got no love. Sent the thing out on Valentine's Day."

Then in February 2026, the letter was invalidated in court. However, damage was already done. The University of Louisville (along with hundreds of others across the country) scrambled to comply when they should have stood firm.

This debate is nothing new. Critical Race Theory was the big fear of 2021. The U.S. Supreme Court effectively repealed affirmative action in college admissions with its 2023 ruling, which spurred the denouncement of all things diversity, equity and inclusion. Piece by piece, anything equitable in American education is being chipped away, dialed back or dismantled.

That's how change happens -- good and bad -- with a chip, a chip, a chip, then a fall.

Trump's Department of Education hoped the fall of DEI would come with its "Dear Colleague" letter. But the administration pushed its anti-DEI agenda beyond the legal limits.

The American Civil Liberties Union immediately challenged the letter in court and got a preliminary injunction to block the threats from being enforced while the case proceeded. In October 2025, a U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland said the letter violated the Administrative Procedure Act and violated the First Amendment.

Meanwhile, state legislatures across the country targeted publicly funded higher education and pushed through racist anti-DEI laws, and Kentucky was in lockstep the whole time.

The Chronicle of Higher Education, which has been tracking the dismantling of diversity, equity and inclusion efforts since 2023, stated that "The pace of change ramped up in 2025" following political pressure.

The University of Louisville canceled a graduation ceremony for LGBTQ graduates; eliminated four identity-based employee groups; renamed its Department of Inclusive Excellence to the Office of Access and Opportunity; and dissolved its Commission on the Status of Women and the Commission on Diversity and Racial Equity. Also, the Porter Scholarship, which was originally set up exclusively for African American students, awarded only 18% of those scholarships to Black students for this year's incoming class.

The "Dear Colleagues" letter is dead. In January, the government quietly withdrew its appeal. A U.S. District Court determined that the letter was legally void, and it cannot be enforced. The Department of Education's threats were deemed illegal and unconstitutional.

Did the University of Louisville reinstate the faculty, scholarships, programming and funding they undermined and removed? No.

Did they lead the charge with legal action against racist state laws and challenge the fact that these laws now stand in direct conflict with federal law? No.

Did they at least recognize what they did was preemptive and unnecessary? Of course not.

Neither did hundreds of other universities across these United States. They shrugged their shoulders and continued on without rectifying anything.

Children deserve better from our institutions of higher education, and administrators must be held accountable. Families, students and communities need to question every course of action. Universities have to acknowledge the harm done and the time and money wasted, and they must restore what they have dismantled.

The "Dear Colleagues" letter served as an important test -- one that the University of Louisville has failed miserably.

Throughout Wednesday's conversation, Jones urged everyone present to not get distracted. This is not about anti-DEI. Just like it was not about CRT. Those are all distractions. Jones said: "What this is about, folks, is the reaffirmation and maintenance of white supremacy. Period."

And this iteration of white supremacy "is to roll back the gains of the Civil Rights Movement," Jones said. That's true not just at the University of Louisville in the red state of Kentucky but across the country.

We must all work to confront it and do our part to hold predominantly white institutions that unnecessarily complied to the "Dear Colleagues" directive accountable.

Last night was an informational educational session on how racism has played out over the decades at the University of Louisville. Education is the first step. Now, it's time to organize.

Do you know anyone who's doing cool things to make the world a better place? I want to know. Send me an email at Bonnie@WriterBonnie.com. Also, stay in the loop by signing up for her weekly newsletter at WriterBonnie.com. To find out more about Bonnie Jean Feldkamp and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

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