#TalkRadio – September 2: Tell The Truth: A Scott Bolden’s Challenge to Leadership Regarding DC Takeover, Smithsonian Attack, Voting Rights and more

Labor Day Protests and Rallies
On September 1, 2025, thousands of workers across more than 50 U.S. cities rallied under the slogan “Workers Over Billionaires,” demanding stronger labor protections, union rights, and economic justice. The coordinated Labor Day actions were organized by a coalition of labor unions, progressive lawmakers, and grassroots groups, with support from striking auto workers, nurses, hotel staff, and teachers.

Protesters targeted symbols of wealth inequality, marching past the homes of Jeff Bezos, Jamie Dimon, and Elon Musk. In Los Angeles, demonstrators staged a “billionaire eviction” outside Musk’s residence, while New York marchers chanted outside Dimon’s and Bezos’s homes. Organizers said these actions were meant to highlight how concentrated wealth undermines democracy and worker power.

The rallies also called attention to legislative efforts, including renewed support for the PRO Act (Protecting the Right to Organize), and criticized corporate lobbying against union expansion. In Detroit, striking auto workers joined the march, demanding fair contracts and an end to tiered wage systems. In Chicago, teachers and nurses emphasized the link between labor rights and public service quality.

Speakers across cities emphasized that while corporate profits have soared, wages for frontline workers have stagnated. Many pointed to the recent rollback of pandemic-era protections and the rise of gig work as evidence of worsening conditions. Organizers framed the day not just as a celebration of labor, but as a call to action against economic injustice and political inaction. (Source: (Guardian staff, September 1, 2025, The Guardian, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/sep/01/workers-over-billionaires-labor-day-rallies).

Unemployment rates of Black Women
As of September 1, 2025, Black women continue—since March 2025—to face the highest unemployment rates of any demographic group, with over 306,000 pushed out of the workforce since February. According to new data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Black women’s unemployment rose from 5.1% in March to 6.2% in May, before dipping slightly to 5.8% in June—still nearly double the rate for White and Asian women, which hovered around 3% during the same period (Carrazana, July 3, 2025, The 19th, https://19thnews.org/2025/07/black-women-unemployment-jobs-warning-sign/). Economists attribute this disparity to federal job cuts under the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which disproportionately impacted agencies where Black women are overrepresented, including the Departments of Education, Health and Human Services, and Housing and Urban Development. Between February and March alone, 266,000 Black women lost jobs due to these cuts (Carrazana, July 3, 2025, The 19th, https://19thnews.org/2025/07/black-women-unemployment-jobs-warning-sign/).

A separate analysis by ProPublica found that Black women made up 28% of the Department of Education workforce and were heavily concentrated in DEI-related roles targeted for elimination (Smith, July 29, 2025, The Root, https://www.theroot.com/terrifying-reasons-300k-black-women-lost-jobs-in-2025-2000053167).

A USA Today analysis published August 5, 2025 notes that federal layoffs have disproportionately affected Black women in states with high concentrations of public sector employment, and that many are now facing long-term unemployment without access to retraining programs. These retraining barriers stem from the elimination of federally funded workforce development grants and the closure of regional career centers in majority-Black districts. In some states, such as Michigan, the unemployment rate for Black women has approached 10%, with similar trends emerging in Georgia and Mississippi—regions where federal employment is high and DEI rollbacks have been most aggressive (Schulz, August 5, 2025, USA Today, https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2025/08/05/black-unemployment-up-slower-labor-market-economy/85467628007/).

A special report from WABE titled Laid Off or Pushed Out: The Impact of More Than 300,000 Black Women Leaving the Workforce estimates that more than 300,000 Black women are no longer a part of the workforce since the November 2024 election. While many were laid off due to federal job cuts and DEI rollbacks, others have voluntarily exited the labor market, citing exhaustion, lack of support, and the collapse of DEI infrastructure as reasons for disengagement.(Sack, August 25, 2025, WABE, https://www.wabe.org/laid-off-or-pushed-out-the-impact-of-more-than-300000-black-women-leaving-the-workforce/).

The Forbes study No Friends in the Pipeline attributes the mass exodus to the dismantling of corporate DEI programs, including mentorship networks and employee resource groups that previously supported Black women’s career advancement. The study further found that the rollback of diversity, equity, and inclusion programs has further exacerbated the crisis, dismantling corporate roles and mentorship pipelines that previously supported Black women’s career advancement. The study (No Friends in the Pipeline, Gassam Asare, August 4, 2025, Forbes, https://www.forbes.com/sites/janicegassam/2025/08/04/no-friends-in-the-pipeline-why-300000-black-women-were-pushed-out-of-the-workforce/).

Meanwhile, new research published in the Journal of Multicultural Counseling and Development—titled Breaking Barriers: The Economic Realities of Self-Employed Black Women With Disabilities—shows that 43.9% of Black women with disabilities are now self-employed. Among those surveyed, 66.9% reported multiple mental health conditions, 27.3% had visual impairments, and 55.4% earned $50,000 or more annually. The study also found that Black women with disabilities were twice as likely to hold graduate degrees compared to their nondisabled peers (Peterson, August 29, 2025, Black Enterprise, https://www.blackenterprise.com/black-women-with-disabilities-self-employment/; Peterson, August 27, 2025, MSN, https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/careers/in-a-challenging-labor-market-black-women-with-disabilities-are-choosing-self-employment/ar-AA1Ll6JM).

However, this path is fraught with risk: under current Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) rules, disabled individuals who earn more than $1,620/month in 2025 are considered to be engaging in Substantial Gainful Activity (SGA), which can trigger loss of benefits (Social Security Administration, January 2025, https://www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10003.pdf). Even more punitive is the “marriage penalty,” where disabled individuals risk losing aid entirely if they marry someone without a disability, due to household income thresholds and asset tests (Heard, April 14, 2025, AccessAbility Officer, https://accessabilityofficer.com/blog/ssi-marriage-penalty-in-2025-why-disabled-couples-lose-benefits-for-saying-i-do).

Under the 2025 Federal Budget Reconciliation Act—signed by President Trump on July 4, 2025 and nicknamed the “One Big Beautiful Bill” (OBBB)—disabled individuals must meet new Medicaid eligibility requirements, including 80 hours/month of verified employment or community engagement. These provisions disproportionately threaten Black disabled women’s economic stability, given systemic barriers to accessible work and the risk of losing benefits for exceeding income thresholds (Hinton, Diana, & Rudowitz, July 30, 2025, KFF, https://www.kff.org/medicaid/a-closer-look-at-the-work-requirement-provisions-in-the-2025-federal-budget-reconciliation-law/). While SSDI and SSI eligibility rules and how disability benefits are awarded or calculated remain unchanged, the bill introduced a temporary $6,000 federal income tax deduction for individuals aged 65+, which may reduce taxable income for some SSDI recipients who are seniors. But this is a tax-side adjustment—not a change to benefit eligibility. And while those work conditions do not apply to SSDI or SSI directly, but they do affect disabled individuals who rely on Medicaid alongside Social Security benefits (i.e., dual-eligibles).

This growing reliance on self-employment among Black disabled women despite all these barriers underscores broader systemic failures in the labor market—failures that are now reverberating across other sectors and demographics.

Experts warn that Black women often serve as a “canary in the coal mine” for broader economic instability—a metaphor meaning they experience economic shocks first, signaling deeper systemic problems that may later affect other groups. This is due to their high labor force participation and concentration in essential sectors like health care, education, and public service (Carrazana, July 3, 2025, The 19th, https://19thnews.org/2025/07/black-women-unemployment-jobs-warning-sign/).

Based on a synthesis of multiple labor analyses cited in the report—including data from ProPublica, Axios, The 19th, and the National Black Chamber of Commerce—the average duration of unemployment for Black women now exceeds six months, longer than any other demographic group. This trend raises alarms about structural inequities and the long-term impact on household stability and national productivity (Smith, July 29, 2025, The Root, https://www.theroot.com/terrifying-reasons-300k-black-women-lost-jobs-in-2025-2000053167).

President Trump’s D.C. Takeover
As of September 1, 2025, approximately 2,300 National Guard troops are deployed in Washington, D.C., including 800 from the D.C. National Guard and 1,500 from six Republican-led states—Ohio, South Carolina, West Virginia, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Louisiana—under Title 32 authority, which allows federally funded Guard operations under state control, though D.C.’s Guard remains under direct presidential command (Murillo, 2025, WTOP, https://wtop.com/dc/2025/08/what-one-expert-says-makes-the-deployment-of-the-national-guard-into-dc-different-from-other-deployments). President Donald Trump initiated the deployment on August 11, 2025, invoking Section 740 of the District of Columbia Home Rule Act to declare a “crime emergency” and assume control of the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department for up to 30 days—after which congressional approval is required to extend federal control (Lazor, 2025, PolitiFact, https://www.politifact.com/article/2025/aug/15/home-rule-act-emergency-power-congress-approval). On August 25, Trump signed an executive order titled “Additional Measures to Address the Crime Emergency in the District of Columbia,” directing Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to create a specialized D.C. Guard unit deputized to enforce federal law and a nationwide “quick reaction force” trained to quell civil disturbances (Cohen, Britzky, & Judd, 2025, CNN, https://www.cnn.com/2025/08/25/politics/trump-executive-order-national-guard-units-crime). While the order does not specify a deployment duration, the Home Rule Act clearly limits federal control of local police to 30 days unless extended by Congress—contrary to Trump’s public suggestion that a national emergency could bypass this limit (Durkee, 2025, Forbes, https://www.forbes.com/sites/alisondurkee/2025/08/13/trump-claims-he-can-extend-dc-police-control-without-congress-heres-why-thats-false). Trump has also threatened similar deployments in cities led by Black mayors—including Baltimore, Chicago, Oakland, Los Angeles, and New York—despite these cities reporting significant crime reductions, such as Baltimore’s 29.5% drop in homicides and 21% decline in nonfatal shootings (Lockman, 2025, CBS News Baltimore, https://www.cbsnews.com/baltimore/news/city-historic-low-violent-crime-homicides-shootings) and Chicago’s 32.3% drop in homicides and 37.4% decline in shootings (City of Chicago,2025, https://www.chicago.gov/content/dam/city/depts/mayor/Press%20Room/Press%20Releases/2025/August/FACT%20SHEET%20CITY%20OF%20CHICAGO%20CONTINUES%20TO%20SEE%20HISTORIC%20DECLINES%20IN%20VIOLENT%20CRIME%20UNDER%20MAYOR%20BRANDON%20JOHNSON.pdf). Critics argue these threats reflect racial and political targeting, especially given that rural red counties—often overlooked—have a 76% higher rate of gun suicides than urban areas and lead in per capita gun deaths, driven by domestic violence and firearm access (AAP News, 2025, https://publications.aap.org/aapnews/news/32993/Reports-detail-rising-rates-of-firearm-suicides). Civil rights leaders and Black mayors have condemned the deployments as racially motivated, with USA Today reporting that Trump’s strategy “paints a false picture of the largest Black-majority cities” to exploit racial distrust for political gain (Berry & Collins, 2025, USA Today, https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2025/08/16/trump-city-takeover-plans-black-mayor-racial-profiling/85670358007).

A. Scott Bolden, Esq. has been a fierce critic of the federal takeover based on his knowledge as a former New York state prosecutor. During the show, he will share more of his perspectives regarding the results-to-date of The Takeover and the threats against other cities which are notably all run by Black mayors.

Black History: “Tell The Truth About Slavery!”
On August 28th, 2025, Attorney Bolden penned an op-ed in the Atlanta Daily World entitled “Trump Should Let African American Museum Tell the Truth About Slavery”. Below are excerpts from the article, which you can read in full here: https://atlantadailyworld-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/atlantadailyworld.com/2025/08/28/trump-should-let-african-american-museum-tell-the-truth-about-slavery-2/?amp=1

President Donald Trump’s recent social media post complaining about how Smithsonian Institution museums portray slavery is inaccurate, insulting and a national embarrassment. ‘The Smithsonian is OUT OF CONTROL, where everything discussed is how horrible our Country is, how bad Slavery was, and how unaccomplished the downtrodden have been — Nothing about Success, nothing about Brightness, nothing about the Future,’ Trump wrote.

• “ ‘We are not going to allow this to happen, and I have instructed my attorneys to go through the Museums …,’ the president continued. ‘This Country [sic] cannot be WOKE because WOKE IS BROKE.’
• “The president’s social media post followed an Aug. 12 letter to the Smithsonian by Trump administration officials demanding a ‘comprehensive internal review’ of eight Smithsonian museums by the White House ‘to ensure alignment with the President’s directive to celebrate American exceptionalism, remove divisive or partisan narratives, and restore confidence in our shared cultural institutions.’
• “The directive mentioned in the letter was an executive order Trump issued in March denouncing ‘a concerted and widespread effort to rewrite our nation’s history … as inherently racist, sexist, oppressive, or otherwise irredeemably flawed’ and ordering an effort to ‘remove improper ideology’ from Smithsonian museums, research centers and the National Zoo.
• “ My view of the National Museum of African American History and Culture aligns with the view a visitor expressed in 2017 when he praised it as ‘a truly great museum’ that was ‘incredible,’ ‘done with love’ and ‘a meaningful reminder of why we have to fight bigotry, intolerance and hatred in all its very ugly forms.’ That visitor in 2017 was President Trump. Too bad his view has changed.
• “ To its credit, Germany requires Holocaust education in schools. Trump would be wise to learn from the German example — not hiding from an ugly chapter of his nation’s history, but shining a spotlight on it so later generations can learn from it.
• “We need to be honest about our past. There is simply no way to put a pretty face on slavery or downplay its barbarity and immorality.
• “Importantly, Trump’s social media post saying Smithsonian museums concentrate on stories about ‘how unaccomplished the downtrodden have been’ is not true. The African American museum devotes much space to telling the story of Black people overcoming slavery, systemic racism and poverty to rise to levels of great accomplishment in just about every field.
• “The many displays about Black abolitionists, civil rights figures, educators, physicians, scientists, lawyers, entertainers, athletes, government officials, business executives and more are as inspiring as the stories of enslaved Black people are disheartening.
• “The fact that Black Americans could rise from slavery to the U.S. presidency of Barack Obama 144 years after emancipation is a testament to the justice of our system of government and the goodness of the American people. Racism has not disappeared, but the great progress our nation has made on the road to equality is something all Americans should learn about and be proud of.
• “My own family has lived this story of Black success. My ancestors were enslaved. My late father, Raymond A. Bolden, who was born in 1933, struggled through poverty, racism and homelessness to become an exceptional student, serve in the U.S. Air Force and go on to become a civil rights lawyer and judge. He inspired me to become a lawyer as well and follow in his and my mother’s footsteps by also becoming a crusader for racial justice.
• “As a lawyer, I’ve often seen witnesses ‘solemnly swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth’ when they are called to testify in trials. We should expect our museums to do the same. President Trump should stop trying to prevent them from doing so.” (End of Excerpt)

There has been considerable aggravation in the African-American community regarding devastating data on Black women’s unemployment.  These and other related matters will constitute the subjects of Tuesday’s show.

QUESTIONS:

Welcome, Attorney A. Scott Bolden!

• Scott, before we get into the substance of the many recent high profile developments in our national landscape and here in Washington, DC, let’s talk about your personal background.
• Scott, Your parents were racial justice fighters and high achievers. How did that influence you?
• Scott, What do you consider to be the highlights of your education at Morehouse and Howard University School of Law?
• Scott, As a prosecutor, what was the most important lesson you learned from those years?
• Scott, Why did you move from New York to Washington D.C.?
• Scott, You advanced rapidly at Reed Smith LLP serving as Managing Partner twice, how has it been to be at the tip of the spear where very few Black lawyers have reigned?
• Scott, Yesterday was Labor Day, and there were 1,000 “WorkersOverBillionaires” protests held all over the nation. What is your perspective on the challenges that workers, especially federal workers, face in the US right now?
• Scott, There is much aggravation in the African American community about the devastating 2025 unemployment numbers for Black women, 306,000 and counting…
• What do you believe should be done to address this Crisis?
• Scott, as we are holding our show today, DC remains under a federal occupation, based on President Trump’s assertion that he seeks to “wipe out crime, savagery, filth and scum…” Why is this assertion wrong?
• Scott, The people of DC have not been silenced by these actions and have not only rallied but have issued several statements of opposition to Trump’s authoritarian actions including a Resolution by the National Conference of Black Lawyers (NCBL) and its DC Chapter denouncing the federal takeover. There has been a robust DC protest movement in opposition to the Takeover with nightly “Noise Every Night “Cacerolazos” on the streets of DC. And on September 6th there will be a Major “WE ARE ALL DC March.” What else can people do to show their opposition?
• Scott, How would you rate the early responses to Trump’s threats of Takeover by Governor Wes Moore, Mayor Brandon Johnson, and others?
• Scott, Let’s turn our attention to the Trump attack on the Smithsonian, particularly the National Museum for African American History and Culture. On August 21st, 2025, the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH) issued a statement on President Trump’s recent continued attacks on African-American history by whitewashing the Smithsonians. On August 28th, you published a strong Op ED in the Atlanta Daily World entitled “Trump Should Let African American Museum Tell the Truth About Slavery”. What are the top points you make in this powerful piece?
• Scott, why is it so important that African-American history be taught?
• Scott, what is the injury that we all suffer from book-banning, the banning of Black History, and the White-washing of our history?
• Scott, right now the President has “his lawyers” combing through all the Smithsonian exhibits looking for material that does not conform with his version of U.S. History. What have been the consequences to date of this attempted White-washing?
• Scott, what is it that people are missing about the threat of authoritarianism and racism in this occupation?
• Scott, what are your top recommendations for what needs to be done in this moment by groups and individuals to address the federal takeovers, rise in authoritarianism, and the White-washing of Black History?
• Scott, Thank You for being on the show. How can our listeners get in contact with you?

[ Arnwine will remind listeners:

• about the September 6th Mass Mobilization in Washington, D.C. against The Occupation
• when you make those daily calls to the Congress at 202-224-3121 to Vote to Stop the Trump DC Takeover and Senate to vote No on the SAVE Act to stay in those streets!
• TJC will continue to vigorously defend the rights of all Americans and will fight the implementation of Project 2025 and our future shows will continue to cover any hate crimes and how we effectively protect ourselves while advancing our agenda for justice.

[Daryl, Barbara, and guests may share their favorite books and encourage people to donate towards TJC’s giveaways of banned and affirming books.]