Texas DEI ban leads to NAACP event abruptly moving from Tarrant County College

A talent competition for Black high school students that has been held at Tarrant County College South Campus for more than 15 years abruptly changed venues last weekend.

The reason? The recent state law, Senate Bill 17, which bans diversity, equity and inclusion offices and programs at colleges and universities. The law went into effect at the beginning of last year, and also bans “contracting with third parties to perform duties of a DEI office,” according to TCC’s website.

The local chapter of the Fort Worth Tarrant County branch of the NAACP organizes an ACT-SO competition every year, where Black high school students compete in a range of competitions, from choir to cooking, STEM to filmmaking. This year more than 50 students competed. The local NAACP chapter has been organizing the program since 1991, and since the late 2000s, the competition has been at TCC’s South Campus.

But this year, organizers had to change course at the last minute. The competition date was Saturday, April 5. On April 3, they received a form invoice from TCC for $5,800 for the daylong event — over a tenfold increase from what they’ve typically paid in recent years.

NAACP officials said they were frustrated to learn of the increased cost only two days before the event. They began organizing for the event in October, and submitted paperwork with TCC in February.

“To have that financial (cost) presented on a Thursday, and then the event was to take place on a Saturday, the following two days, that was not something that we could even venture to accomplish,” said Estella Williams, president of the Fort Worth/Tarrant County NAACP.

In a statement, college officials confirmed their co-sponsorship of the event had been pulled because of the legislation.

“We deeply regret the confusion surrounding this year’s facility use and acknowledge that there was an unreasonable delay in communicating the cost estimate to the organizers,” said TCC general counsel Antonio Allen in a statement. “We understand and regret the stress this may have caused the event planners and participants.”

Allen said the college has been proud supporters of the competition for many years. In past years, he said, the college was able to co-sponsor the ACT-SO event. The event brought prospective students to TCC and showcased the resources and facilities available on campus.

“However, in light of Texas Senate Bill 17 (SB-17), which prohibits public colleges from supporting or co-sponsoring events designed or implemented in reference to race, color, or ethnicity, or that give preferences on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin, the College could not extend co-sponsorship this year,” said Allen.

Tarrant County College officials have been concerned with enforcement of Senate Bill 17 since it went into effect, leading to policy changes.

Campus cultural organizations have reported complications when scheduling celebrations like Black History Month, including restrictions on what they can print or how they can organize events, according to student newspaper The Collegian. Access to LinkedIn Learning courses has also been pulled over its inclusion of courses related to diversity.

At a March board meeting, TCC’s board of trustees heard findings from an external audit report finding that old content on its website — published before the DEI ban went into effect — was not in compliance with the law. However, diversity terminology was not found in job descriptions, a faculty handbook, registration applications or reports to the state.

During the meeting, Chancellor Elva LeBlanc said the college has taken the legislation seriously.

“As we find things that are not in compliance, we address them immediately, and even these recommendations have been addressed,” LeBlanc said of the audit report by Whitley Penn.

Sens. Brandon Creighton, R-Conroe, and Paul Bettencourt, R-Houston, both proponents of Senate Bill 17, recently described it as a “groundbreaking law” that has “ignited a nationwide shift toward merit-based advancement.”

“The law has been replicated across the country to ensure that taxpayer dollars are not used on divisive initiatives that compromise merit, stifle free speech, and fuel division on college campuses,” the senators wrote in a February letter to the governing boards of every public university in Texas.

But, citing reports that universities have not fully complied with the law, Creighton and Bettencourt are threatening to not increase state higher education funding during the 2025 session. Creighton, the chair of the Senate Committee on Education K-16, did not immediately reply to a request for comment on TCC’s response to the NAACP event.

Democratic lawmakers, including Sen. Royce West, who represents Dallas and parts of Tarrant County, have defended DEI programs as having a positive impact for a variety of demographic groups. Their elimination perpetuates racial and gender disparities, he said.

“As we look at compliance with Senate Bill 17, I want … to also talk about the counterbalance to make certain that we don’t follow these other states in losing opportunities for underrepresented populations,” West said last year.

Neal Hutchens, a professor in educational policy studies and evaluation at the University of Kentucky, has been examining higher education laws throughout the nation.

“The Texas law is both specific and broad,” said Hutchens, who also has a law degree. The penalties for noncompliance are steep, he said. Institutions could lose state funding for a year and individual penalties or an individual could lose their job.

“Institutions are probably going to err on the side of prohibiting something, even if it might not actually be a violation of the law,” he said.

At the NAACP, organizers say they were blindsided by the rate increase. They shifted to “panic” mode and, by the end of April 3, a local church in Glencrest, Carter Metropolitan CME Church, rearranged its Saturday plans to host the competition.

Williams has reached out to university officials with her concerns. She’s an alum of Tarrant County College, attending in the first year the college opened at its South Campus in 1967.

“We’re not in favor of SB-17. It creates a protection for those who do not desire the need for inclusion, diversity and equity, yet for others SB-17 creates a grave level of fear,” said Williams, adding that she had seen progress in past years but the law stymies that growth. “SB-17 places individuals in a psychological warfare with a travesty of going backwards.”

TCC and the NAACP are going to discuss the matter and identify paths forward.

“You know, the protocol that they have to follow is understandable. We all have rules and regulations that we have to follow,” said Williams, who has been an NAACP member since she was 9 years old.

Williams said that the organizing in the past for the ACT-SO competition — which stands for Afro-Academic, Cultural, Technological and Scientific Olympics — has gone forward with “well-greased” wheels on a train. The competition began as an effort to address the dropout rate, something that was significant in the African American community, she said.

Students who win gold medals at the competition are awarded all-expense-paid trips to the NAACP national convention, which will be in July in Charlotte, North Carolina, this year. More than a dozen students earned gold this year.

The chapter has hosted the competition for more than 30 years, Williams said — and it will continue regardless of its venue.

Content editor Haley Samsel contributed reporting. 

Shomial Ahmad is a higher education reporter for the Fort Worth Report, in partnership with Open Campus. Contact her at shomial.ahmad@fortworthreport.org.

The Report’s higher education coverage is supported in part by major higher education institutions in Tarrant County, including Tarleton State University, Tarrant County College, Texas A&M-Fort Worth, Texas Christian University, Texas Wesleyan University, the University of Texas at Arlington and UNT Health Science Center.

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