Built by Service, Broken by Policy: How Federal Jobs Built the Black Middle Class — And What’s Being Dismantled Right Now

In 1863, a man named William Cooper Nell walked into the Boston Custom House and sat down at a clerk’s desk. It doesn’t sound revolutionary. But Nell was Black. He was the first known Black civilian federal employee. And that quiet, unremarkable act — a man doing a job for the United States government — set in motion something that would shape Black America for the next 160 years.

I spent over 20 years as one of those federal employees. I built my career, my expertise, and much of my family’s economic stability inside the federal system. And so did my parents. So when I tell you that what’s happening right now represents one of the most significant threats to Black economic progress since Reconstruction, I’m not being dramatic. I’m telling you what I’ve seen.