Virginia’s chapter of the NAACP plans to take Gov. Glenn Youngkin to court over an alleged failure to respond to public records requests.
The chapter’s president, the Rev. Cozy Bailey, said at a news conference outside the state Capitol on Monday that Youngkin was being served legal action that day.
The pending legal back-and-forth stems from an initial August public records request by the NAACP to determine if the administration has been complying with state law regarding DEI work.
The NAACP’s inquiry on this matter began after Martin Brown — Virginia’s chief diversity, equity and inclusion officer — said last April at Virginia Military Institute that “DEI is dead.”
“We’re not going to bring that cow up anymore. It’s dead. It was mandated by the General Assembly, but this governor has a different philosophy,” Brown said during a mandatory DEI training for faculty and staff at VMI on April 21, 2023.
The NAACP then sought more details by requesting public records and correspondence under the DEI Office through a Freedom of Information Act request. A back-and-forth ensued with the governor’s FOIA officer where the NAACP claims the administration sought to narrow the request and failed to provide cost estimates. In the end, records were not provided.
“Because of the extraordinary number of documents sought, a legitimate issue involving the best method for document search and production has arisen,” said Christian Martinez, a Youngkin spokesman. “We expect further discussions to occur to seek a resolution per the statute.”
Bailey said the NAACP’s latest legal effort has been brewing since Youngkin has been in office. Before his 2021 election, conservative outcry over alleged critical race theory in K-12 curriculum had spread nationwide. The college-level teaching of systemic ways race is included in laws became a catch-all for things like diversity training for faculty at all levels. Youngkin’s first executive order as governor was to end teaching of “inherently divisive concepts.” More recently, he has requested to review Virginia Commonwealth University and George Mason University’s racial literacy syllabi materials.
Bailey called Youngkin’s attitudes toward DEI concepts “an insidious fight.”
“He doesn’t seem to understand that when we talk about these issues of differences, that we prevent problems in the future. He would rather, let me say it, stir the pot,” Bailey said.
While a 2020 state law outlined Virginia’s DEI office, Youngkin’s administration has changed its operating name to emphasize “opportunity” rather than “equity.”
When Brown was first confirmed to his post, the state legislature amended Youngkin’s language that had swapped “equity” for “opportunity.” Though it is not the language in the statute, the administration’s website lists Brown’s purview as the “Office of Diversity, Opportunity and Inclusion.“
Recently, Texas and a handful of other states have passed legislation targeting DEI programs. In watching developments nationally, Bailey said he is concerned that incremental actions are adding up in Virginia.
“Some believe that the governor is copying efforts seen in other states to limit or outright eliminate DEI practices in state government,” Bailey said. “If this is the direction that he is going, the Virginia NAACP will not stand by and allow this to happen.”
The Rev. Cozy Bailey, president of the Virginia NAACP, speaks on Capitol Square on Monday. Bailey called Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s attitudes toward DEI concepts “an insidious fight.”