AAUW Condemns Escalating Attacks on Civil Rights Organizations

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The American Association of University Women (AAUW) condemns the administration’s escalating attacks on civil rights organizations, warning that these actions threaten the fundamental rights and freedoms of communities across the country. The latest developments targeting long-standing civil rights institutions reflect a broader effort to dismantle protections that ensure people can live free from discrimination and harm.

These attacks come amid a coordinated campaign to undermine the civil rights movement and the organizations that safeguard it, including the recent indictment of the Southern Poverty Law Center. Civil rights groups play a critical role in protecting the ability of individuals to live, work, vote, and learn without fear of discrimination, yet are increasingly being targeted for carrying out this essential work.

“This moment demands clarity and courage,” said Gloria L. Blackwell, CEO of AAUW. “Efforts to criminalize civil rights work are attacks on the people and communities we serve every day. We will not be intimidated, and we will not be silenced in our pursuit of equity and justice.”

AAUW joins partners across the civil rights community in emphasizing that these actions are part of a broader attempt to rewrite the meaning of civil rights and weaken protections that generations have fought to secure. Civil rights organizations provide vital services from protecting voting rights to supporting survivors of violence. Undermining them directly harms the ability of people to live their daily lives safely and with dignity.

At a time when many Americans are already concerned about threats to democracy and fundamental freedoms, AAUW calls on leaders, advocates, and communities to speak out and stand together. An attack on one civil rights organization is an attack on all, and collective action remains essential to preserving justice and equality.

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AAUW (American Association of University Women) is one of the nation’s leading organizations for equity in higher education and women’s economic empowerment. Founded in 1881 by women who defied society’s conventions by earning college degrees, AAUW has since worked to increase women’s access, opportunity, and equity in higher education through research, advocacy, and philanthropy of over $146 million, supporting thousands of women scholars. Learn more at aauw.org.