DOJ investigates Baltimore over racially segregated equity meetings

The U.S. Department of Justice has launched a civil rights investigation into the Baltimore City Health Department over alleged racially segregated employee meetings. The sessions were conducted as part of publicly funded equity training efforts and separated staff into white-only and people-of-color-only groups.

In a letter to Baltimore Mayor Brandon M. Scott, DOJ officials said they had “reasonable cause” to believe the department may be engaged in employment practices that violate Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

The inquiry will examine whether BCHD’s racial affinity groups and training sessions constitute unlawful segregation or classification based on race, color, or national origin.

"Our investigation is based on publicly available information suggesting that BCHD may
be engaged in certain employment practices with respect to employee training and terms and
conditions of employment which discriminate against, and limit, segregate, and classify,
employees because of their race, color, and national origin," reads the letter written by Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet K. Dhillon.

The probe follows reporting by Spotlight on Maryland, which obtained internal emails and invoices showing BCHD paid the People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond about $50,000 between 2022 and 2024 for workshops titled “Undoing Racism” and for attendance at monthly “White Caucus Group” meetings.

The health department defined the white caucus as a “group of white people who meet for the purpose of building analysis, awareness, stamina, and strategy to challenge systemic racism and internalized white supremacy,” the publication reported.

BCHD said the meetings were designed to help white employees process their own racial conditioning “without relying on people of color for answers.”

A spokesperson for Mayor Brandon Scott told Spotlight on Maryland that the office is "aware of the DOJ’s letter and will comply with any lawful investigation."

Receipts reviewed by Spotlight on Maryland show the department paid the People’s Institute $150 for each caucus session it observed and for which it provided feedback. The meetings continued through at least June 2025, and internal messages from BCHD staff showed discussions about further payments during that year.

The equity training included handouts such as “The Iceberg of White Supremacy,” which listed “colorblindness,” “anti-immigration policies” and “celebration of Columbus Day” as covert examples of systemic white dominance. A separate planning guide said multiracial work was “difficult” because “white supremacy is a systemic sickness.”

Thiru Vignarajah, a former deputy attorney general of Maryland, said the meetings “raise serious legal questions” and conflict with longstanding Supreme Court rulings.

“You don’t get to just separate people by color under the pretext of pursuing diversity and then stonewall when the public comes asking questions and expecting answers,” he told Spotlight on Maryland.

Chad Dion Lassiter, executive director of the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission, said the BCHD model risks backfiring.

Internal emails also documented power concerns within the sessions.

In one August 2023 exchange, a BCHD staffer said some organizers were reluctant to challenge the agency’s acting commissioner, who was attending the meetings. The employee cited “a power dynamic issue” that made it difficult to have open discussions in the commissioner’s presence.

Spotlight on Maryland reported that BCHD also spent more than $2,000 in public funds on food for a three-day equity event hosted by the People’s Institute in November 2024. The materials used in those sessions have not been released in full.

P.M. Smith, a pastor and former attorney who grew up in East Baltimore under legal segregation, said the training approach was misguided.

“We know what racism is,” he was quoted as saying. “The question is: how do you overcome that? We overcome that by zeroing in on the power we do have to change.”

A spokeswoman for the People’s Institute said the sessions were “affinity spaces,” similar to employee resource groups in the corporate sector. She said they improve retention and engagement by allowing workers to “share ideas and offer feedback in smaller spaces.”

Both Smith and Lassiter rejected that rationale. Smith said the practice was “a waste of time and money.” Lassiter cautioned against any space that risks appearing “along the continuum of segregation.”