Justice Department probes taxpayer-funded racial equity training with segregated groups in Baltimore

TLDR:

• Justice Department is investigating Baltimore’s health department for segregating employees by race during taxpayer-funded training sessions
• The city paid consultants $50,000 between 2022-2024 for “Undoing Racism Workshop” with separate “White caucus” and “people of color caucus” groups
• Officials spent over $2,000 on food and paid $150 per White caucus meeting through at least June 2025
• Assistant Attorney General calls the practice “discriminatory, illegal, and un-American”

The Justice Department opened an investigation into Baltimore City Health Department for allegedly segregating employees into racial groups during taxpayer-funded equity training.

The Civil Rights Division announced Wednesday it is probing reports that the department separated workers into a “White caucus” and a “people of color caucus” during workshops led by Louisiana-based consultants.

Internal documents obtained by Spotlight on Maryland show the city paid the People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond $50,000 between 2022 and 2024 for an “Undoing Racism Workshop.” Officials also spent more than $2,000 on food for a three-day training in November 2024 and paid consultants $150 for each White caucus meeting.

The health department defended the separation, saying White affinity groups help participants “examine our racial conditioning without relying on people of color for answers.” The department said the goal was helping White people understand their “own complicity and systemic racism.”

Email records show the White caucus meetings continued through at least June 2025.

Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon condemned the practice as fostering a “racially hostile work environment.”

“Racial segregation of employees is deeply offensive to the American guarantee of equal rights under the law, and it will not be tolerated,” Ms. Dhillon said.

Read more:

• DOJ probes Baltimore City Health Department for racially segregated training