A recent report from the Legal Defense Fund (LDF) outlines troubling implications of Project 2025, an extensive ultraconservative plan that could reshape the U.S. government under a potential future administration led by former President Donald Trump. This comprehensive 900-page document suggests policies that may severely affect Black Americans, according to the LDF’s detailed legal analysis.

The report indicates that Black communities could face detrimental consequences from proposed measures that aim to weaken anti-discrimination protections, dismantle the Department of Education, threaten political representation, expand the use of the death penalty—often disproportionately impacting Black individuals—and worsen health disparities linked to environmental racism.

Karla McKanders, director of the LDF’s Thurgood Marshall Institute (TMI), emphasized the urgency of understanding how Project 2025 could destabilize democratic processes and civil rights. “I want people to grasp the larger impact that Project 2025 will have on our democracy and undermining our democracy,” she stated.

The report is crafted in accessible language and has been widely circulated on social media to reach a broader audience. McKanders noted, “The most important part of the report is how Project 2025 will have an impact on individual lives and how those individual lives will be upended through the policy proposals.”

Central to the report’s findings are sections addressing education equity and political engagement. McKanders elaborated on the proposal to dismantle the Department of Education, which may initially seem abstract but carries significant implications for individual lives. “If we look at pre-K, Project 2025 proposes to dismantle the Head Start program for pre-K. In the report, we have statistics that show that 28% of the enrollees in Head Start are Black children. While it will undermine education efforts for all children, in particular, it will disproportionately impact and widen achievement gaps for Black and Latinx students,” she explained.

The analysis also warns of repercussions extending from pre-K through to higher education. McKanders highlighted, “Project 2025 proposes to pull back Pell Grants, and Black students are overrepresented in terms of the beneficiaries of Pell Grant. This plan would shift the responsibility for overseeing schools and discrimination back to state and local governments.”

Furthermore, McKanders pointed to the potential impacts on Black political participation and power. The initiative proposes replacing civil servants with political appointees, which could erode nonpartisan integrity within federal agencies. She cited the Census Bureau as a critical example: “If the Census Bureau is dismantled, that will impact the undercounting of Black communities, and then that will trickle down to disproportionately impacting the allocation of both political seats and resources for the Black community through federal funding.”

The TMI has been actively researching issues surrounding water rights and equity, particularly as natural and man-made disasters disproportionately affect Black communities. The report suggests that dismantling federal agencies, such as the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), could lead to devastating outcomes for these populations. McKanders articulated the importance of federal assistance in the aftermath of disasters, stating, “The resources that the federal government provides when there’s a natural disaster are instrumental in getting communities back on their feet.”

She further elaborated on the critical nature of environmental standards and disaster relief, highlighting that the loss of these agencies could exacerbate existing inequalities. “The main point is how this exacerbates existing inequities for Black communities,” McKanders asserted.

While much discourse surrounding Project 2025 has revolved around broader themes of democratic erosion, McKanders is keen to spotlight its immediate effects on individuals’ lives. She acknowledged that in certain states, such as Georgia and Oklahoma, residents are already experiencing the ramifications of policies aligned with the project’s vision.

“In certain areas, we can already see how individual lives are upended, and we really want this to be a tool for people to understand what this will do and how it will impact their individual lives,” she concluded.