I hope no HBCU marching band participates in the Trump inauguration parade, which will be a stain on our nation and, in many ways, an insult to the Black community.
Trump has gone to great lengths to insult the Black community and undermine fundamental rights at the base of its development, now seeking to revoke the birth right and naturalization Clause of the 14th Amendment, having succeeded in ending affirmative action and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs.

Trump does not recognize the citizenship and presidency of President Obama. He also did not recognize the Biden presidency and instigated a violent January 6, 2021 insurrection and attack on the Capitol seeking to prevent its certification during a joint session of Congress.

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Trump's January 20, 2025 inauguration and the celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King's 96th birthday will mark a fork in the road for our nation.

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Trump's endorsed Heritage Foundation Project 2025 Report is a strategic plan to reverse New Deal, Great Society, and Civil Rights Movement era jurisprudence, policies and programs (undermining the 1964 Civil Rights Act, the 1965 Voting Rights Act, and the 1968 Open Housing Act). He is assembling a cabinet to implement the Report's recommendations.

Trump's January 20, 2025 inauguration and the celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King's 96th birthday will mark a fork in the road for our nation; Trump's authoritarianism, guided by an alliance between corrupt plutocrats and super wealthy oligarchs, or Dr. King's call for equality, justice, and peace based on fundamental rights and democracy. I will not attend or recognize Trump's inauguration, instead answering Dr. King's call and rejecting Trump.

As they did in January of 2017, Trump and his enablers will put pressure on HBCUs and their leaders to signal their support for Trump's inauguration, creating artificial division within the Black community.

Those who helped raise approximately 1 billion dollars for the Harris-Walz presidential campaign should commit to donating to help insulate HBCUs from budget and political pressures (i.e., marching in Trump's inauguration parade) that will emerge in the wake of the second Trump presidency.

For me, nothing about the results of the November 5th presidential election changed the fact that Trump is a twice impeached, four-times indicted charged insurrectionist, and a convicted felon with a record of racist comments and behaviors. Contrary to what Trump said, African countries are not shithole nations.

We have an obligation to our ancestors and our children, the only future we have.

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Now retired, Thornton had been a member of the Howard University Political Science faculty for 26 years and once chaired the political science department. He is also author of “Like a Phoenix I'll Rise: An Illustrated History of African Americans in Prince George's County, Maryland, 1696-1996.”