Note to the Woke: Mandated ‘White Supremacy’ Struggle Sessions Violate the First Amendment

Eerie parallels between this school employee suit and Michigan health professionals' experiences with Implicit Bias Training (IBT).

Fantastic graphics should be viewed at Daily Signal's link.

https://www.dailysignal.com/2026/01/13/key-court-case-illustrates-how-enforcing-lefts-dei-orthodoxy-white-supremacy-violates-first-amendment/

Note to the Woke: Mandated ‘White Supremacy’ Struggle Sessions Violate the First Amendment

January 13, 2026

During the “Great Awokening” in 2020, something snapped inside left-leaning Americans. Many of them decided that not only was America institutionally racist, but it was also their duty to abuse their positions to force “anti-racism” and “diversity, equity, and inclusion” on the rest of us.

Corporations and school districts subjected employees to DEI struggle sessions in order to root out “racism.”

Now, some of these bad actors are finally facing accountability for their abuses.

On the second-to-last day of 2025, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit resurrected a powerful First Amendment lawsuit that exposes just how bad things became—not in New York City or San Francisco, but in Springfield, Missouri.

Mandating DEI Orthodoxy in Springfield

Brooke Henderson, a 12-year process coordinator, and Jennifer Lumley, a two-year records secretary, sued the Springfield R-12 School District for violating their First Amendment rights in a 2020 “Fall District-Wide Equity Training.”

While a lower court ruled against them, six of the 8th Circuit’s 11 judges revived their case.

Both Henderson and Lumley were given to understand they would be docked pay for refusing to attend the training in October 2020.

Trainers told Henderson that she “needed to have ‘courageous conversations;’ that [she] must stay engaged; that the topics of the training can be uncomfortable, but [she] must ‘lean into [her] discomfort.'” The PowerPoint presentation also warned staff to “Be Professional—Or be Asked to Leave with No Credit.”

Trainers also warned staff that they “had to agree or [they] would lose credit and that [they] had to be an ally and it was part of [their] job duty to be an anti-racist educator.”

The district also required employees to take online training modules that forced staff like Henderson to select answers with which she disagreed.

During the training session, the school district’s equity and diversity officer corrected Henderson harshly, leading her to conclude that if she spoke up, she might be penalized for being “unprofessional.”

Similarly, Lumley ventured to state that she did not believe every white person is racist and that she did not believe she is “privileged” because she grew up in poverty. One of the trainers told Lumley that black people cannot be racist, and when she pushed back, the trainer directed her to reflect on herself more.

As the 8th Circuit’s majority wrote, “Plaintiffs have asserted that the training was essentially an indoctrination focused on the school district’s views and its interpretation of white supremacy.”

The district expected staff to accept its definition of white supremacy and its claims that “covert white supremacy” includes such features of American society as “colorblindness,” “All Lives Matter,” “calling the police on black people,” and “Eurocentric curriculum.”

The 8th Circuit’s majority ruled that the evidence shows “how the school district forced the plaintiffs to accept the school district’s views under threat of punishment.” While school districts can endorse their own messages, they do not have the right to compel employees to speak against their own convictions.

The 8th Circuit’s ruling does not mean the plaintiffs have won the case, only that they get a second chance to make their arguments.

What Does This Mean?

The school district attempted to force critical race theory—the notion that American society is institutionally racist and requires radical change to achieve “equity”—on staff, and it is high time they answer for it.

This school district is far from alone. In 2021, employees came forward exposing similar trainings at companies such as American Express, Bank of America, Coca-Cola, Disney, Lowe’s, and Pfizer.

In July 2020, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture shared an infographic on “whiteness” that demonized a broad swath of American culture as aspects of “whiteness,” including the nuclear family, an emphasis on the scientific method, the Protestant work ethic, and the notion that “intent counts” when considering justice.

Time and time again, people abused their authority to preach a divisive anti-American ideology that called for a drastic upheaval of American institutions—even while the riots after the death of George Floyd caused more than $2 billion in insurance payouts and cost 26 American lives, including black people like 77-year-old retired St. Louis Police Captain David Dorn.

Under President Joe Biden, woke activists pushing this ideology gained a strong foothold in the federal government. Federal civil rights law aimed to help people whom critical race theory said were “oppressed,” rather than applying the law to protect people regardless of skin color.

Thankfully, President Donald Trump reversed this disastrous trend, ordering the Executive Branch to reject critical race theory and DEI, and directing the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division to champion the very “colorblindness” the Springfield equity training demonized.

This court ruling sends an important signal: that those who abuse their positions to enforce DEI orthodoxy will have to answer for it in court.

While I hope the American people will take the lesson to heart, I believe opposition to DEI will require constant vigilance—since the activist groups that influenced the Biden administration aren’t going away anytime soon.

Tyler O'Neil is senior editor at The Daily Signal and the author of two books: "Making Hate Pay: The Corruption of the Southern Poverty Law Center," and "The Woketopus: The Dark Money Cabal Manipulating the Federal Government."