2 Black women AGs who clashed with Trump headline NAACP panel in Charlotte
President Donald Trump wasn’t invited to the NAACP’s annual convention — but even in his absence, the effects of his presidency loomed over a packed ballroom in uptown Charlotte Sunday.
Letitia James, the New York Attorney General who took Trump to court for a civil fraud trial from October 2023 to January 2024, headlined the Women in NAACP Empowerment Brunch at the Charlotte Convention Center. Former U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch, who squared-off with Trump when he probed into her investigation surrounding Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server, joined James.
The two, who are some of Trump’s cardinal critics, delved into how U.S. legal systems — from White House executive orders to local acting police chiefs — affect Black women everywhere and how they believe the country is inching closer to fascism.
Trump has made a “bold, naked grab to literally rewrite the Constitution,” Lynch said.
It’s troubling, James added, but grassroots movements — like those of the civil rights movement — are a force that for centuries has fought to both change and protect laws in communities across the country.
Moderator Eboni K. Williams, a lawyer and television host, asked the two about the executive order Trump signed that threatens to upend how the Constitution’s protection of birthright citizenship is applied.
Immigration Customs Enforcement agents’ raids coupled with the order could jeopardize citizenship and the right to vote for all, Lynch said, but particularly that of people who “traditionally have less political power than others.“
“That is how fascism has always started,” she said. “Going after the least powerful members of society, people who do not have the ability to vote and making sure they never get it.”
Lynch said the order is “an attempt to unravel what knits this country together by the stroke of a pen.”
James replied: “The president doesn’t use a pen, he uses a Sharpie,” and his executive order has not held up in three lower courts.
News from the top is “challenging and bad,” James said, but it is not everything.
Community is everything, she said to an audience of Black women and power.
Lynch encouraged the audience to familiarize with themselves with local leaders: police chiefs, city council members and mayors — and vote for the values they want to see the government uphold.
In Charlotte, the police chief, city council and mayor are under a probe from North Carolina auditor following a secretive settlement with Chief Johnny Jennings.
And Councilwoman Tiawana Brown, who was at a front-row table Sunday, was federally indicted in May for allegedly lying on pandemic relief applications and using relief funds to throw a lavish birthday party for herself.
American Airlines crash victim honored at NAACP in Charlotte
Organizers also honored Kiah Duggins, a Harvard University graduate and civil rights attorney who died January 29 when American Airlines flight 5342 collided with a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter in Washington D.C.
She was set to become a professor at Howard University this fall after dedicating her time outside of college to public service law.
“Kiah had a keen sense of justice from a very young age,” her mother said while accepting an award on her daughter’s behalf.
“She was told from a young age that she couldn’t be a princess ‘because princesses were not brown,’” her mother said.
Her response? She started a nonprofit at 20 years old that equipped Black and brown girls “with the tools they need to reach their full potential.”
Its name? The Princess Project.
“She was a princess turned warrior,” she said.
James, drawing her third standing ovation during her final remarks, reflected on her own rise from a young Black girl with a made-up mind.
As the first Black woman elected as Attorney General in the state of New York, “some people stopped me at the door,” she said.
“When I walk into that room now, they open the door,” she continued. “But I don’t forget where I’m from. And I don’t forget where I came from... and I don’t forget who put me in that room. I don’t forget who elected me.
“I tell that little Black girl to look at me, to look at Ketanji Brown Jackson on the Supreme Court, and hold your head up high... You can be anything, little Black girl. Fly. Dream.... I am you, and you are me.”
This story was originally published July 13, 2025 at 4:26 PM.
