BREAKING NEWS: Governor DeWine Just Declared War on Black Ohioans with SB 1

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

March 28, 2025

COLUMBUS, OH — Today, Governor Mike DeWine signed Senate Bill 1 into law — a blatant, violent attack on truth, education, and the future of Black people in Ohio.

Let’s not sugarcoat this: the state of Ohio just doubled down on its mission to silence, erase, and control Black minds.

This bill guts diversity, equity, and inclusion from Ohio’s colleges and universities. It whitewashes education, censors history, and strips power from institutions that dare to teach students the full truth about this country — and about our people. And while DeWine smiled for the cameras, the rest of us are left holding the weight of another policy built to push us out, dumb us down, and keep us in check.

This isn’t just a policy decision — it’s a declaration. A declaration that Black futures, Black intellect, and Black voices don’t matter to Ohio’s leadership. We’ve seen this before. And we’re calling it what it is: state-sanctioned anti-Blackness masked as “reform.”

The Ohio Legislative Black Caucus Foundation refuses to be silent while our communities are under attack. Black students will be most harmed. Black professors will be pushed out. And Black families will once again be told their excellence must fit inside a system that fears their brilliance.

But let’s be clear: this doesn’t just impact Black people.

Poor students, working-class families, and rural white communities will also feel the crushing weight of SB 1. When power is centralized, truth is censored, and public input is erased, everyone outside the elite political structure loses.

• Rural students will see their futures dictated by distant power, not local needs.

• Poor and working-class families will lose access to inclusive education that opens doors, not closes them.

• Educators from all backgrounds will be silenced or pushed out for teaching anything outside a narrow, state-approved script.

This is not just an attack on Black minds — it is an assault on democracy, transparency, and public accountability. SB 1 is a blueprint for authoritarianism, and Ohio just signed on.

Governor DeWine has now signed not one, but two of the most harmful bills in Ohio’s recent history — first HB 6, and now SB 1.

This legacy is not leadership. It’s cowardice wrapped in a suit.

DeWine is capitulating to a horrid federal administration and its dangerous, regressive agenda — and it is Ohioans, and Americans across this country, who will suffer the consequences.

This is not neutrality. This is alignment. This is surrender to the politics of fear, division, and control.

And when history looks back, it will remember this moment for what it was: a betrayal of the people by those who were elected to serve them.