Former state senator and event moderator Dwight Bullard, and HyLo News CEO Janey Tate, interview U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) and civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump at the People’s Meetup Town Hall, May 31 at Antioch Missionary Baptist Church in Miami Gardens. PHOTOS COURTESY OF FACEBOOK AND WIKIPEDIA

By David L. Snelling

Miami Gardens, Fla. – Blacks face more challenges in the U.S. under President Donald Trump’s policies including rolling back DEI initiatives, slashing jobs, Medicaid and fair housing programs, and whitewashing African American history.

The deck is stacked even higher against Black Floridians with Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis and the GOP-controlled Florida Legislature echoing Trump’s political agenda, leaving their future uncertain.

The state of Black America was the centerpiece of the People’s Meetup Town Hall on May 31, at Antioch Missionary Baptist Church, where more than 400 people, local dignitaries and the NAACP gathered to discuss the next steps to turn things around.

U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) a political rising star and Trump’s most vocal critic, and civil rights attorney Ben Crump were the featured speakers during the timely event, calling for people to get involved in the political process.

Crockett’s immediate focus is with the 2026 midterm elections, encouraging Blacks to get out and vote and turn seats blue locally, in the state Legislature, the U.S. House and Senate.

The GOP red wave swept through Miami-Dade in the 2024 presidential election which was previously a Democratic stronghold, and Democrats are hoping for a turning point after two consecutive dismal election results.

Crockett, a former public defender and civil rights attorney, said Blacks need to stay informed on the Trump administration’s policies that could impact their communities including the president’s contentious tariffs.

 

“There were people that were hurting, and they just wanted to believe there has to be something better, because the economy had not fully recovered from the global pandemic, but now we are starting to understand these global supply chains,” she said. “We cannot be so limited to where our education is only in our city or our county or our state or our country,”

Crockett criticized Trump’s “one big, beautiful bill” which proposes cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and Medicaid which affects millions of Blacks.

Crockett is seeking to become the top Democrat on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, the lower chamber’s lead investigative committee if Democrats can regain control of the House in 2026.

Crockett told ABC News last week that she might pursue impeachment against Trump.

“I would absolutely at least do an inquiry. Absolutely. I think that there’s more than enough to inquire about,” she said. “Such as this $400 million plane from the Qataris and whether that’s a violation of the emoluments clause of the Constitution. I think that we need to dig into all this crypto nonsense that he’s got going on. I think we need to dig into the fact that it looks like he’s giving out pardons for play.”

Crump said Trump’s DEI and other policies are sweeping Blacks back to the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, struggling for equality in schools, federal government, workplaces and the U.S. military.

He called it “scary times” for Blacks who must continue to fight despite the odds and engage in efforts to make changes.

He praised the recent federal court’s decision to temporarily reinstate the Southern Education Foundation’s Equity Assistance Center program grant previously cut by the U.S. Department of Education over DEI concerns.

The Trump administration has in recent weeks worked to undo key education civil rights efforts dating back to desegregation that were meant to provide equity for students of color.

“The Trump administration is trying to erase the legacy of desegregation by shutting down Equity Assistance Centers, programs born from the Civil Rights Act to protect Black students from discrimination,” Crump said. “This isn’t about merit. It’s about dismantling justice and progress.”

Another attack on Blacks was the U.S. Department of Justice’s decision to dismiss lawsuits, investigations and federal charges against local police departments and officers convicted of violating the civil rights of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor and Tyre Nichols, who were murdered by officers in Minneapolis, MN, Louisville, KY and Memphis, TN, respectively.

The murders prompted police reform throughout the U.S. since the deaths of Floyd and Taylor and federal government oversight and crackdown on police brutality against Blacks.