In Washington, D.C. — where African Americans make up more than 30% of the labor force and Black women have historically viewed government service as a pathway to upward mobility — President Donald Trump’s purge of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs has delivered a punishing blow.
According to a December 2024 report by the D.C. Policy Center, the District’s prime working-age labor force participation rate has consistently outpaced the national average, climbing from 86.6% in 2010 to 91.5% in 2023. Despite this progress, the report also shows that Black D.C. residents continue to experience lower labor force participation rates than their white counterparts — a disparity that widened by 3.7 percentage points between 2010 and 2023.
The divide has only grown under Trump’s second presidency.
A new ProPublica investigation reveals that Black women — especially those working in stable federal jobs in the D.C. region — have been disproportionately affected by the Trump administration’s aggressive rollback of DEI efforts. The administration’s executive orders have resulted in sudden terminations and administrative leave for hundreds of civil servants, many of whom had no direct ties to DEI roles but were still targeted based on perceived past affiliations.
Quay Crowner, a seasoned HR executive with more than two decades in federal service, was placed on leave from her job at the Department of Education despite her work not falling under any DEI mandate.
“We are still just in utter shock that the public service we took an oath to complete … has fallen apart,” Crowner told ProPublica.
She and other affected employees, mostly Black women, had previously participated in DEI training encouraged during Trump’s first term.
The D.C.-based firings have raised legal and constitutional questions. A class-action complaint filed in March with the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board—backed by the ACLU of D.C.—alleges that the Trump administration violated the First Amendment and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act by disproportionately targeting nonwhite and nonmale workers.
Attorney Kelly Dermody, who is representing the group, stated, “Approximately 90% of the workers targeted for terminations due to a perceived association with DEI efforts are women or nonbinary. Nearly 80% are people of color — most of them Black women.”
The Education Department, once composed of a majority non-white staff with Black women accounting for 28%, has seen its workforce slashed by 46%. Meanwhile, less diverse agencies like the Department of Justice and Department of Energy have experienced minimal cuts, 1% and 13% respectively.
Ronicsa Chambers, who worked at the Federal Aviation Administration and was once named Air Traffic Manager of the Year, told investigators at ProPublica she was abruptly placed on administrative leave this January.
“As far as we know, we’re the only ones still on administrative leave,” Chambers said, referring to her team of five Black women and one white man with a disability.
Her former duties involved accessibility support but not DEI programming.
The trend is especially troubling in a city where, according to the D.C. Policy Center, educational and racial disparities already undermine labor force engagement. Residents born in the District have lower labor force participation rates than transplants, and the gap between white and Black residents in workforce participation has steadily widened.
The city’s report also noted that prime working-age residents with only a high school diploma experienced a 9-point drop in labor force participation between 2010 and 2023.
Sherrell Pyatt, a federal worker with over a decade of experience across five agencies, lost her job at the Department of Homeland Security’s Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties after nearly 150 staff were fired.
“I think it was an easy target to get rid of people of color and people who fight for people of color,” she said.
Her sudden dismissal left her family financially strained, with her husband now the sole provider.
“This administration is doing things that make it really feel like they’re targeting people like me,” Pyatt added through tears. “People who love the country, come from a family that has served the country for generations, did what we were supposed to do. And it just doesn’t matter.”
