Critical Race Theory

What Is Critical Race Theory

Critical race theory (CRT) is an academic framework that originated in law schools in the 1970s and 1980s. It examines how racism is embedded in laws, policies, and institutions, not only in individual prejudice. Its founders studied the racial hierarchy that outlasted slavery and Jim Crow, and the white supremacy written into law that produced it. The theory asks why unequal outcomes persist even after openly racist laws are repealed, across areas from voting rights to housing to affirmative action in admissions. In simple terms, it studies racism as a feature of systems, not just the work of a few bad individuals.

The founders are real scholars with a real body of work. Education Week names Derrick Bell, Kimberlé Crenshaw and Richard Delgado among its creators, and the American Bar Association adds Cheryl Harris, Patricia Williams and Gloria Ladson-Billings. Crenshaw also coined the term “intersectionality,” according to Columbia Law School. Their writing appears mainly in law reviews and graduate seminars.

Two examples show what the framework actually examines. The first is redlining. In a study of 29,921 federally backed home loans from 1935 to 1947, Black borrowers received 2.1% of Federal Housing Administration loans, while Black Americans were 9.9% of the 1940 population (Nature). The second is Bell’s idea of “interest convergence,” set out in his article “Brown v. Board of Education and the Interest-Convergence Dilemma,” which holds that racial progress like Brown advanced partly because it also served white interests (American Bar Association).

What Critical Race Theory Argues

Critical race theory is a body of legal scholarship, and its claims are written down. Richard Delgado and Jean Stefancic set them out in Critical Race Theory: An Introduction, which Education Week lists among its sources.

Source: Richard Delgado and Jean Stefancic, Critical Race Theory: An Introduction; UCLA CRT Forward.

The framework reached education research through scholars such as Gloria Ladson-Billings, whose 1998 article “Just what is critical race theory and what’s it doing in a nice field like education?” Education Week lists among its sources. That work is aimed at education researchers and teacher preparation, not at a K-12 lesson plan.

Critical race theory is not the same as Ibram X. Kendi’s anti-racism writing or diversity training. It is also separate from affirmative action and from the 1619 Project, a journalism project about slavery’s role in American history. The next section shows how these get grouped under one label.

Three Distinct Concepts Treated as One

The biggest source of confusion is that “critical race theory” now covers three distinct things that have little to do with one another. Critical race theory is a legal framework. Workplace diversity programs are corporate human-resources policy. Teaching the documented history of slavery and segregation is standard social studies. The laws written to stop “critical race theory” often sweep in all three.

In K-12 public schools, the third row is the one teachers actually teach, so a law aimed at “critical race theory” in schools mostly reaches lessons on that history.

How CRT Became a Political Fight

A phrase from law reviews became a national political issue in about a year. In 2020, after the murder of George Floyd, many employers and institutions issued statements on structural racism, a shift Crenshaw has described as the setting for the backlash (The New Yorker). President Donald Trump’s September 2020 order restricted “divisive concepts” in federal training, and conservative activist Christopher Rufo campaigned to use “critical race theory” as a label for that wider set of ideas.

Rufo described the strategy in a post on X.

The goal is to have the public read something crazy in the newspaper and immediately think “critical race theory.” We have decodified the term and will recodify it to annex the entire range of cultural constructions that are unpopular with Americans.

Christopher Rufo, March 15, 2021

The federal government acted first, then reversed, then revived the approach, while courts limited Florida’s version. The timeline below traces the arc from the theory’s origins to the 2026 appeals ruling.

1. 1970s-80s Legal scholars build the framework Derrick Bell, Kimberlé Crenshaw and Richard Delgado, among others, develop critical race theory in law schools.
2. Sept 2020 Trump order targets training Executive Order 13950 restricts "divisive concepts" in federal training.
3. Jan 2021 Biden rescinds the order The new administration revokes EO 13950 on its first day.
4. 2021-2022 States pass classroom bans Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, and Florida enact restrictions, including the Stop WOKE Act.
5. Mar 2024 Court blocks Florida workplace rule The 11th Circuit keeps the Stop WOKE Act's mandatory-training rule for employers blocked.
6. Jan 2025 Trump issues a K-12 order EO 14190 targets "discriminatory equity ideology" in schools and revives the 1776 Commission.
7. Jul 2026 Court blocks Florida campus rules The 11th Circuit, 2-1, keeps the law blocked in university classrooms.

Sources: Education Week; Federal Register; 11th Circuit opinions in Honeyfund (2024) and Pernell (2026).

Critical Race Theory in Politics, 1970s to 2026: 1970s-80s: Legal scholars build the framework (Derrick Bell, Kimberlé Crenshaw and Richard Delgado, among others, develop critical race theory in law schools.). Sept 2020: Trump order targets training (Executive Order 13950 restricts "divisive concepts" in federal training.). Jan 2021: Biden rescinds the order (The new administration revokes EO 13950 on its first day.). 2021-2022: States pass classroom bans (Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, and Florida enact restrictions, including the Stop WOKE Act.). Mar 2024: Court blocks Florida workplace rule (The 11th Circuit keeps the Stop WOKE Act's mandatory-training rule for employers blocked.). Jan 2025: Trump issues a K-12 order (EO 14190 targets "discriminatory equity ideology" in schools and revives the 1776 Commission.). Jul 2026: Court blocks Florida campus rules (The 11th Circuit, 2-1, keeps the law blocked in university classrooms.).

1970s and 1980s: Derrick Bell, Kimberlé Crenshaw and Richard Delgado, among others, built critical race theory as a framework for legal analysis (Education Week).

September 2020: President Trump signed Executive Order 13950 on September 22, 2020, restricting “divisive concepts” in trainings run by the federal government and its contractors.

January 2021: President Biden revoked EO 13950 on January 20, 2021, his first day in office, in Executive Order 13985.

2021 and 2022: States moved the fight into classrooms. Oklahoma passed HB 1775 in 2021, Texas passed HB 3979, Tennessee enacted its own limits, and Florida passed the Stop WOKE Act, HB 7, in April 2022.

March 2024: On March 4, 2024, the 11th Circuit kept Florida’s ban on certain mandatory workplace meetings blocked. “The First Amendment keeps the government from putting its thumb on the scale,” Judge Britt Grant wrote in Honeyfund v. Governor (opinion).

January 2025: President Trump signed Executive Order 14190 on January 29, 2025, directing a plan to end federal support for what it calls “discriminatory equity ideology” in K-12 schools and reestablishing the 1776 Commission to promote what it calls patriotic education. The order does not use the phrase “critical race theory” (Federal Register).

July 2026: On July 7, 2026, a divided 11th Circuit panel, 2-1, affirmed the order blocking the Stop WOKE Act’s limits on teaching in higher education. The court wrote that “nothing in this opinion should be construed as applying outside the limited context of postsecondary education” (Pernell v. Florida Board of Governors).

Hundreds of Bills, Far Fewer Laws, Thin Evidence

Hundreds of measures were proposed and far fewer became law. The central claim behind many of them, that schools are indoctrinating children, has been tested in a large survey of history teachers.

The first two numbers count different things. The UCLA CRT Forward tracker counted 870 measures introduced by 249 local, state, and federal government bodies from September 2020 until it stopped collecting data at the end of 2024, and its count includes resolutions, letters, and statements as well as bills. Education Week counts 21 states that imposed restrictions through legislation or other rules between January 2021 and June 2026, out of 44 that tried (Education Week).

The book-ban numbers run alongside the classroom laws. PEN America counted 10,046 instances of school book bans in 2023-24, a 200% rise, and Florida and Iowa accounted for 8,232 of them. Of the titles banned in two or more districts, 44% included characters or people of color (PEN America). PEN America’s count for the next year was lower, 6,870, as the book bans explainer details.

The American Historical Association surveyed about 3,000 middle and high school history teachers in nine states. In preliminary 2024 findings, most said they try to keep lessons politically neutral, and 97% said a lesson’s top goal is to turn students into critical thinkers and informed citizens (Education Week).

Where the Laws Stand in 2026

The federal K-12 order is in force, Florida’s broadest rules are blocked in court, and most state laws remain on the books. Each row is dated to its latest primary record.

Where Anti-CRT Rules Stand

As of October 6, 2026

• Executive Order 13950 (2020 training order) Ended

  Revoked January 20, 2021, by Executive Order 13985. (source)

• Executive Order 14190 (K-12 order) Agency action

  Signed January 29, 2025. Targets "discriminatory equity ideology" and revives the 1776 Commission. (source)

• Education Department letter against race-conscious programs Final ruling, vacated

  A federal judge in Maryland vacated the February 14, 2025 letter on August 14, 2025, and the appeals court dismissed the department's appeal at its request in January 2026. (source)

• Florida's Stop WOKE Act, mandatory workplace meetings Blocked by a court

  The 11th Circuit affirmed the preliminary injunction on March 4, 2024. (source)

• Florida's Stop WOKE Act, university teaching Blocked by a court, preliminary injunction

  The 11th Circuit affirmed, 2-1, on July 7, 2026. The ruling does not reach K-12 teachers. (source)

• State classroom restrictions Law

  21 states imposed restrictions between January 2021 and June 2026, and most remain on the books. (source)

Source: Federal Register; U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit; Education Week; K-12 Dive

Why the Bans Reach Beyond CRT

The laws reach past the theory they name. Critical race theory itself is taught mainly in law schools and graduate programs, while the restrictions apply to public school teachers, who teach the history of slavery, the Tulsa massacre and the civil rights movement.

Education Week’s report on that study quoted a historian who said the “divisive concepts” bills “make assumptions about what teachers are teaching.” It also noted that teachers who used concepts like white privilege had been disciplined (Education Week). Most of these rules are written at the state and local level, by legislators and school boards.

The Honest Disagreement

Critics argue the trend they oppose is real and harmful. Christopher Rufo, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, and other supporters of the state laws say that lessons and trainings drawn from critical race theory teach children to judge people by race, sort them into oppressors and victims, and amount to indoctrination. They read concepts like white privilege and racial hierarchy as assigning guilt by group, and identity politics as the result. They frame the laws as protecting students from a divisive ideology.

Scholars and teachers answer that the academic framework is legal scholarship, not a K-12 curriculum. They argue that vague “divisive concepts” language discourages teachers from covering documented history such as slavery and segregation; Crenshaw has called the campaign “a post-George Floyd backlash” (The New Yorker). In July 2026 the Eleventh Circuit held the university provisions unconstitutional as applied to the professors who sued, at the preliminary-injunction stage.

Some of the questions are factual, such as what history teachers report they teach. Others, such as how the country’s racial history should be taught, are decided by voters, legislators and school boards.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who created critical race theory?

Legal scholars did, starting in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Education Week names Derrick Bell, Kimberlé Crenshaw and Richard Delgado among them, and the American Bar Association adds Cheryl Harris, Patricia Williams and Gloria Ladson-Billings.

Is critical race theory taught in schools?

Critical race theory is taught in some law schools and graduate programs, not as a K-12 curriculum. In preliminary 2024 findings from an American Historical Association survey of about 3,000 history teachers in nine states, most said they try to keep lessons politically neutral.

What is the difference between critical race theory and DEI?

Critical race theory is an academic legal framework about racism in institutions. DEI, short for diversity, equity, and inclusion, refers to workplace and campus diversity programs. The American Bar Association says critical race theory is not a diversity and inclusion training. Some laws written against it reach both: Florida’s Stop WOKE Act, announced as a measure against critical race theory in schools and corporations, banned certain mandatory workplace trainings until the 11th Circuit blocked that part in 2024.

Is the 1619 Project critical race theory?

No. The 1619 Project is a New York Times series that sought to put the history and effects of slavery, and Black Americans’ contributions to democratic reforms, at the center of American history. Education Week describes it as a current example that fueled criticism of critical race theory, which is legal scholarship. In November 2020, President Trump created the 1776 Commission to promote what the order called patriotic education (Executive Order 13958).

What are the main ideas of critical race theory?

The core idea, as Education Week summarizes it, is that race is a social construct and that racism is not only individual bias but also something embedded in legal systems and policies. The framework grew out of legal analysis in the late 1970s and early 1980s by scholars including Derrick Bell, Kimberlé Crenshaw and Richard Delgado.

Why do Republicans oppose critical race theory?

Critics, including activist Christopher Rufo and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, say lessons and trainings drawn from it sort students into oppressors and victims by race. Rufo wrote in 2021 that he aimed to make the term cover “the entire range of cultural constructions that are unpopular with Americans.” Scholars and teachers’ groups answer that the academic theory is not a K-12 curriculum, and a historian quoted in Education Week said the “divisive concepts” bills “make assumptions about what teachers are teaching.”

Is critical race theory good or bad?

Whether it is good or bad is a values judgment the sources do not settle. The academic theory is legal scholarship that began in law schools and spread to other fields, while the state laws and local measures written against it reach K-12 classrooms and diversity programs.

What You Can Do

1. Oppose “divisive concepts” bills in your state legislature. These are the vehicles that turn the critical-race-theory label into classroom restrictions. Ask your state representative and senator, on the record, to vote no, and ask any sponsor to define exactly what speech the bill bans. Use the letter and call script below.

2. Tell your lawmakers to protect teachers and honest history. A teacher who fears a vague law will skip the lesson on slavery or the civil rights movement. The July 2026 Florida ruling protects university professors, not K-12 teachers, so state law is where that protection has to come from.

3. Show up at school-board meetings. Most book challenges and curriculum fights are decided locally, in rooms most parents never enter. Find your district’s meeting schedule, sign up to speak, and ask board members to keep accurate history and challenged books in the classroom.

4. Track the bills and the bans. Education Week’s state restrictions map shows where restrictions passed, the UCLA CRT Forward archive holds every measure through 2024, and PEN America’s book-ban index shows which titles are being pulled. Bring the specific numbers for your state to your representatives and your school board.

5. Write your representative using the letter below and ask for a clear, on-the-record commitment to oppose classroom-censorship laws and protect teachers.