A Renewed Case for Funding the South

President Trump issued more than 70 executive orders within his first days in office. In addition to pardoning and commuting the sentences of the nearly 1,600 people who were charged in the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capital, Trump also issued orders that seek to mandate that the United States only recognize two genders, end birthright citizenship, and dramatically roll back Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs on the federal level.

Many of Trump’s actions have been declared unconstitutional by advocates and legal experts and are being litigated in court. However, the attack on DEI programs has already begun to have an impact. Several prominent companies, including Target, Amazon, and Walmart, announced that they would be halting their DEI programs, many of which had only been a place for a short time.

In a memo issued on January 24 by Charles Ezell, the acting director of the US Office of Personnel Management, federal departments and agencies were directed to take action “to terminate, to the maximum extent allowed by law, all DEI, DEIA, and ‘environmental justice’ office positions within sixty days.”

Who Is Hurt the Most?

Poor, rural communities will be among those most impacted by the gutting of DEI initiatives. As journalist Rachel Ramirez points out for CNN, rural communities like Hickory, NC, and Danville, AR, were awaiting federal funds to help safeguard against the impact of climate change and environmental justice. Under former President Joe Biden’s Justice40 initiative, 40 percent of federal spending on climate and clean energy programs was allocated to disadvantaged communities. Trump has eliminated the Justice40 program.

“We ignore the South at our own peril.”

Many of those who will be hit hardest by the rollback of resources at the federal level are those who have already experienced it at the state level. In many ways, for those living in the South—particularly in rural areas—this is not new but a continuation of deteriorating conditions. In an interview with CNN addressing the attacks against DEI initiatives, Randall Woodfin, the mayor of Birmingham, AL, asserted that “Americans are witnessing the Alabamafication of the federal government.”

“We’ve seen in Alabama legislators create laws to get rid of DEI, and the governors signed into laws that remove DEI from colleges and universities and other aspects throughout the state,” Woodfin said. “We’ve seen this dance, and the unfortunate part is other Americans have to witness this at the national level.”

Why Invest in the South?

Southern states like Alabama offer a cautionary tale about the detrimental impact of doing away with diversity initiatives and efforts to uplift the voices of the most marginalized. But looking at the South also provides a renewed case for more resources and funding to be diverted to the region.

Indeed, the South is the site of some of the worst racial gerrymandering, voter suppression, and racial wealth gaps in the country. But the South has also seen progressive victories in recent years due to local organizing and coalition building—the type of work that will become even more critical over the next few years.

That is why groups like Way to Rise advocate for an increased investment in the South. Way to Rise is a nonpartisan 501c3 philanthropic strategy center working toward multiracial democracy, especially in the South and Southwest, where such progress is often undermined.

“We ignore the South at our own peril,” said Emily Timm, the deputy executive director of Way to Rise, in an interview with NPQ.

Many of those who will be hit hardest by the rollback of resources at the federal level are those who have already experienced it at the state level.

Timm is the author of a December 2024 report entitled Sunbelt Revival: Lessons from the States for a Multiracial Future, which uplifts case studies of multiracial organizing victories in the South and Southwest.

The report begins with an introduction that notes the attacks on American democracy in recent years—like the attempt to thwart the peaceful transfer of power on January 6, 2021. As the report notes, the insurrectionists—since pardoned by Trump—were overwhelmingly White and male, and many came from counties that are now experiencing demographic shifts toward having more people of color. It is not far-fetched to conjecture, the report reads, that at least part of the motivation behind the insurrectionists was a fear of changes to their economic and social status.

“We ignore the South at our own peril.”

The report argues that “the task ahead is to undo the isolation and divisiveness that has pit Americans against each other, and this can only be achieved by understanding and taking on the deep discontent that characterizes the Sunbelt states where our country’s DNA was cemented into the caste system along the lines of race.”

The report uplifts 10 case studies as examples of a way forward—how groups can come together despite differences in race and class, and advocate for policies that benefit them all. These case studies include:

• The Amendment 2 Coalition in Florida which used personal storytelling, digital and community organizing, and direct action to successfully mobilize voters across political lines to vote to raise the minimum wage in 2020, despite Trump also winning the state that same year.
• Latine, Black, and White working-class community members in Houston, TX, who leveraged co-governance relationships between community groups and Harris County elected officials to successfully apply for federal funds to create an alternative power grid for Harris County. The Texas Solar for All Coalition won nearly $250 million for solar installations.
• The Georgia Youth Justice Coalition and several other partners who organized efforts to defeat the passage of the “Don’t Say Gay” bill in 2023 by calling and writing letters to legislators, training students to visit elected officials, and holding actions at the state capital. The coalition gained an unlikely ally in the Georgia Baptist Coalition, which spoke out against the legislation by framing it as limiting how religious organizations could engage with their congregants. The bill was defeated in 2023, and when it was reintroduced in 2024, there was already a mechanism in place to successfully organize for its defeat again.

These and the other case studies featured in the report are based on long-form qualitative interviews Timm conducted, intentionally structured to capture the stories of those organizing on the ground and the context in which they were working.

Timm hopes these case studies will help funders more deeply understand the need to invest in organizing in the South. She believes that there is no path to building a multiracial democracy and a more realistic representative government at the national level without meaningfully addressing some of the challenges in the South.

“We’re hoping that showing both the challenges and also where there is a path forward can help inspire other funders to understand that it’s not going to be a quick fix and it has to be a long-term, at-scale investment in this region,” Timm said.