Democrat California Rep. Lateefah Simon lashed out at Republican witnesses at the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday for quoting Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Simon told the witnesses to keep King’s name “out of their mouth[s]” during a hearing on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). The witnesses she addressed were Dan Lennington of the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty, Judge Glock of the Manhattan Institute and Erec Smith of the Cato Institute.
“There are so few folks who have actually studied and is clear on the theology of King. Very few of you have read and studied and have sat in Ebenezer Baptist Church so I would ask you, you keep Dr. King’s name out of your mouth!” Simon said. “If you, like me and the many scholars who will be watching, who have studied King, you know that he and the mothers and the fathers of the Civil Rights Movement and the movement for emancipation not only would be struck by the conversations in this room, but would be shattered by the consequences of lives, of hatred and abuse of this administration in the name of those who worked to make this country more free!”
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Simon accused President Donald Trump’s administration “used Dr. King’s name” to argue in favor of pushing the U.S. back to a “segregated America” based on race, sex, ethnicity, national origin and gender identity.
“They’re motivated by a fear of a multiracial and multicultural democracy. A fear that freedom of coequal citizens living as their authentic selves with pride. Out of fear, they have a fear of accountability,” Simon said. “We must name this conversation today for what it truly is. It is a bigotry, it is a hypocrisy. Republicans, like I’ve said before, will quote Dr. King all day, will bring forth Lincoln and talk about Frederick Douglass in the same breath that they are gutting civil rights offices in our governments.”
“In the same breath where they seek to ban AP African American Studies that tells the true story of this country! It ain’t just one story, it is the complete story,” Simon continued.
Simon likely referred to the AP African American course that got rejected by Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration in 2023. The course included material and units that focused on “black queer studies” and on certain material that pushed critical race theory (CRT).
When Trump reentered office, he signed an executive order on Jan. 21 to eliminate race-based DEI initiatives from the federal government and informed all DEI employees that they were placed on paid leave. Companies and corporations across the U.S. began rolling back its DEI initiatives and eliminated significant portions of its “diversity positions.”
Simon further claimed that the Trump administration’s goal is to return to the 1950s by eliminating race-based policies. “A 1950s America is what the goal of this conversation is and some of us say ‘hell no,’” Simon concluded.
King led a movement to push the idea that a nation judges people “based on the content of their character” rather than their physical attributes. DEI programs sometimes required quotas and implemented hiring practices that helped people acquire their job positions based on their race, gender and other attributes.
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