BALTIMORE (WBFF) — Civil rights leaders praised an investigation launched by the U.S. Department of Justice this week into the Baltimore City Health Department (BCHD) over concerns about racially segregated equity meetings.
The U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division launched an investigation into BCHD on Wednesday, citing a Spotlight on Maryland report from the day prior that exposed how the agency hosted monthly staff meetings separated by race, which it labeled as its “white caucus” and “people of color caucus.” The DOJ sent a letter to Baltimore City Mayor Brandon Scott informing him of the investigation into whether BCHD violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex and national origin.
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Cleveland Horton, the executive director of the Maryland Commission on Civil Rights, which is the state’s enforcement agency for civil rights violations, welcomed the DOJ investigation.
“I think it’s always helpful to have a third party taking a look at the particular issue to gain the facts, learn the facts, do an investigation, to figure out what happened,” he told Spotlight on Maryland.
Horton said state agencies should not separate employees by race.
“I would advise state agencies to stay away from anything that can give the appearance of being exclusive,” he said. “We have to be willing to bring everybody to the table and engage in conversations.”
Chad Dion Lassiter, the executive director of the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission, which is the state’s top civil rights enforcement agency, praised the DOJ investigation and said his office would never separate people by race.
“The DOJ should be commended for beginning an investigation, and we’ll see what the outcome is,” Lassiter told Spotlight on Maryland. “We would advise that you don’t do trainings where you caucus people along race, ethnicity, and indices like that because it can be divisive. I’ll also go on record by simply saying we have to be mindful that I don’t think it’s just divisive in this era; I think it’s divisive in general.”
The “white caucus” and “people of caucus” meetings were revealed in hundreds of internal emails at BCHD obtained by Spotlight on Maryland in a public information request. BCHD paid the Louisiana-based People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond roughly $50,000 from 2022 to 2024 to lead an annual racial equity training, which was followed by the monthly caucus meetings observed by paid consultants.
Documents revealed that BCHD defined its “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.”
“These goals require some time and intentional spaces where white people can do the personal work of understanding our own complicity and systemic racism and build the skills necessary to challenge that complicity,” the agency’s description continued. “White affinity groups allow us to examine our racial conditioning without relying on people of color for answers or subjecting them to our process.”
Lassiter said the documents reveal a troubling approach to equity initiatives.
“You don’t caucus along the continuum of the color line,” Lassiter told Spotlight on Maryland. “You can’t put trainings together that are divisive. You can’t put trainings together where some people are feeling inferior. And you can’t put trainings together where other people are feeling as though they’re superior.”
Horton said he looks forward to the results of the DOJ investigation, which he hopes reveals what the motive was behind the BCHD meetings.
“When you hear the word segregation, obviously you raise your eyebrows because you never want employees to feel isolated, excluded,” he told Spotlight on Maryland. “You want all voices to be heard in a manner that is inclusive — that should be our primary goal in everything that we do in all of our organizations.”
Documents revealed that the “white caucus” group met through at least June 2025. BCHD and Scott’s office did not respond to a question about whether the caucus groups have ongoing meetings.
Harmeet Dhillon, the assistant attorney general in the DOJ Civil Rights Division, cited Spotlight on Maryland’s report in her criticism of BCHD.
“Separating employees into training groups based on their race is discriminatory, illegal, and un-American. Such practices are divisive and foster a racially hostile work environment,” Dhillon said, according to a press release announcing her investigation into BCHD. “Racial segregation of employees is deeply offensive to the American guarantee of equal rights under the law, and it will not be tolerated.”
Spotlight on Maryland is a joint venture by The Baltimore Sun, FOX45 News and WJLA in Washington, D.C. Have a news tip? Call 410-467-4670 or email SpotlightOnMaryland@sbgtv.com. Contact Patrick Hauf at pjhauf@sbgtv.com and @PatrickHauf on X.
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