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WASHINGTON, D.C. – America First Legal (AFL) has filed three federal civil rights complaints with the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division, requesting immediate investigations into the City of Alexandria, City of Richmond, and Arlington County for potential violations of Title VI and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 through unlawful racial quotas and “equity mandates” embedded across their local governments. AFL’s complaints come just days after leftists swept Virginia’s statewide elections—offering a preview of what’s to come: radical Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (“DEI”) hiring quotas, race-based policing, and city governments focused more on identity politics than equal justice under the law.
Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits racial discrimination by any entity receiving federal funds. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act prohibits employers from discriminating against an individual based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. Alexandria, Richmond, and Arlington County all take federal taxpayer dollars, and all three appear to engage in discrimination in violation of Title VI and Title VII. In fact, despite these federal civil rights laws, these jurisdictions openly engage in DEI policies, ordering local departments to implement discriminatory “equity” programs and directives. These are not isolated cases—they reflect a growing pattern in Virginia, further enabling newly elected state leadership to entrench DEI bureaucracies that punish merit and reward ideology. In doing so, the citizens of these three localities suffer as equal treatment under the law is replaced with racial favoritism and forced ideological conformity.
Alexandria
Arlington
Richmond
Passed a resolution supporting “equity and justice in access to resources and opportunities.” Created an Office of Equity and Inclusion to “normaliz[e] and operationaliz[e] equity and inclusion throughout all city departments/offices so that all leadership and staff operate with an equity lens and that equity and inclusion become embedded within all city policies.” Launched the “Richmond Racial Equity and Environmental Justice” program to address the “many of the inequities associated with climate change impacts [that] come down to race and ethnicity.”
Each of these jurisdictions has partnered with the Government Alliance on Race and Equity (GARE)—a radical activist network that trains governments (for a fee) to embed racial ideology into law and policy. GARE operates under Race Forward, an organization that has received more than $2.5 million in funding from George Soros-affiliated groups since 2017. That same year, Race Forward merged with the Center for Social Inclusion, a project of the Soros-funded Tides Center—effectively making GARE part of the broader Soros network.
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Alexandria, Richmond, and Arlington are not alone. Across the country, local governments have become laboratories for the Left’s race-based social experiments—embedding “equity” mandates that replace equal treatment with racial favoritism. America First Legal is not standing idly by while local officials violate federal civil rights laws. We are leading the fight to restore the rule of law and have already pushed back against discriminatory policies and programs in cities like Portland and Seattle.
“This is what happens when leftwing ideology replaces equality under the law,” said Emily Percival, Senior Counsel at America First Legal. “Equity mandates have turned local governments into laboratories for racial engineering. AFL is proud to lead the charge to expose it, document it, and, finally, put a stop to it.”
“Cities across the country are explicitly stating that they are treating Americans differently because of their race. Cities, counties, and corporations are under the perverse perception that discrimination is okay when they do it to rectify past discrimination—it is not,” said Will Scolinos, Attorney at America First Legal.
Race-based policies do not create justice—they destroy it. As Virginia lurches to the Left, America First Legal will continue leading the fight to ensure that federal funds never support programs that divide citizens, weaken public safety, or erode the rule of law.
Read the Alexandria complaint here.
Read the Arlington County complaint here.
Read the Richmond complaint here.
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