This story is part of an occasional series, Federal Effects, about how changes in federal policy are impacting our local community.

The Roanoke Equity and Empowerment Advisory Board will continue to meet and pursue its mission even though references to its existence were removed from the city’s website, its chair says.

And city school Superintendent Verletta White, during a school board meeting Tuesday night, said she will sign a certification that the Roanoke division is following federal civil rights laws. That's being required by the state, through the U.S. Department of Education.

White, drawing from her experience as a mother, she said, the school system strives to treat all students in a way that benefits them all.

"We don't choose one group over another," she said.

Afraid it could lose millions in federal housing dollars, the city in recent weeks quietly removed diversity, equity and inclusion language from city government webpages in the wake of President Donald Trump’s executive order on “Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing.”

The school system has not removed such references.

The EEAB’s chair and lone remaining original member, Angela Penn, said she has received direction that the board should continue to meet.

Its next meeting is scheduled for May, Penn said. And during that meeting, Penn said there is a scheduled discussion of a potential apology from the city for urban renewal and what it did to a segment of the city’s Black community decades ago. That has been an ongoing board issue. Penn said the board has received feedback from city council members on that matter that will be part of the May discussion.

The board's schedule has been to meet on the first Thursday of odd-numbered months.

Mayor Joe Cobb said he believes the board is “absolutely critical,” and there is no plan to dissolve it.

He said the City Council has given recommendations to the board and he said he plans to be at the meeting for that discussion.

Penn said she understands that the “city has to do what it needs to” at this point in order to try to prevent funding losses that could severely impact its budget.

And that is something with which others agree.

Peter Wonson, a former EEAB member appointed when it was formed in 2020, said the city had no choice when facing millions of dollars in potential federal funding cuts.

“But I hate it,” he said.

Wonson said the EEAB has played an important role - and can continue to do so with issues such as race relations and housing.

The EEAB was formed after thorough consideration forged through comprehensive planning, he pointed out.

“You cannot remove the stripes from a tiger,” he said.

An official with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development contacted the city on Feb. 26 about Trump’s executive order, according to an email City Manager Valmarie Turner sent City Council members on Feb. 27.

“They are notifying all grant recipients or grantees of the potential risk of funding loss if their websites contain ‘Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion’ (DEI) language, and such language should be removed,” Turner wrote. “Staff asked for the request to be sent in writing; however, we were told that they could not give any other instructions and/or provide this request in writing.”

Following Turner’s email, city webpages have been taken down.

Gone are city webpages devoted to employee DEI training, worker demographic data and city department equity action plans. So too is an employee-focused page on language access, which explained how residents who do not speak English could access city services. “We're sorry, but there is not a web page matching your entry,” the error messages read. 

A city webpage for the Equity and Empowerment Advisory Board that included the board’s agendas and minutes has disappeared. The page was changed to EEAB, with no explanation of what the board does. After The Rambler wrote in late March about the city’s scrubbing of webpages, that page, too, disappeared.

Cobb has defended the website scrubbing as an unfortunate necessity to continue providing critical services, such as lead abatement, to residents.

Turner’s email said the federal official who contacted Roanoke was with the department’s Office of Lead Hazard Control and Healthy Homes. Her email said Roanoke has three open grants with that office, totaling about $11.5 million. In addition, the city receives about $2.5 million in planning and development grants through another HUD office.

David Bustamante, executive director of the Roanoke Redevelopment and Housing Authority, said he was also contacted by HUD officials because of a $3 million grant on radon testing and mitigation. Bustamante said he and employees scoured the housing authority’s website but did not find anything associated with diversity, equity and inclusion.

Some Roanoke-controlled websites that mention “equity” still remain live; “Interwoven Equity” is a key component of the city’s comprehensive plan, which recommended the creation of the equity board.