‘You cannot erase us’: Helena mayor to discuss anti-DEI politics at Missoula’s Black Solidarity Summit – Longview News-Journal

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Updated: March 1, 2025 @ 2:49 am
Helena Mayor Wilmot Collins speaks at an Arbor Day ceremony outside the Helena Civic Center in April 2021.
The University of Montana campus

As federal diversity, equity and inclusion policies are threatened by the Trump administration, Helena Mayor Wilmot Collins wants Montanans to remember Black people have contributed to America, “DEI or not.”
“People think DEI hires, Black people in jobs, are the least qualified,” he said before the speech. “DEI is equality.”
Collins will be the keynote speaker of the Black Solidarity Summit, hosted by the University of Montana’s Black Student Union, in Missoula on Friday night. This will be the eighth summit held at the University.
He’s been celebrated as the Treasure State’s first Black mayor, though he credits that honor to Edward T. Johnson, who won Helena’s mayoral election in 1873 before it was an incorporated town.
Helena Mayor Wilmot Collins speaks at an Arbor Day ceremony outside the Helena Civic Center in April 2021.
Collins was also a refugee from Liberia, West Africa, who escaped civil war with his wife who had once lived in Helena as a foreign exchange student.
His speech will emphasize that Black history is American history.
Take Thomas Edison, he said. Edison is often celebrated as the inventor of the lightbulb, but it was a Black co-worker named Lewis Latimer who invented and patented the carbon filaments light bulbs depend on.
Latimer also wrote “Incandescent Electric Lighting,” the first book on electric lighting, and also worked alongside Alexander Graham Bell to invent the telephone.
When Americans forget Black accomplishments, they also risk forgetting Black potential, he said. It’s one of the reasons he’s disturbed by the effort to “weaponize” DEI.
The University of Montana campus
On Jan. 20, President Donald Trump signed an executive order demanding the end of all DEI policies in the federal government.
He’s issued other orders that target specific entities, including one that required schools like the University of Montana, where the summit is being held, to report and remove DEI programs or risk loss of federal funding.
In the face of these orders, some federal agencies removed the celebration of Black History Month, Martin Luther King Jr. Day and other cultural awareness events, NBC News reported.
While he cannot undo these orders, he wants to encourage Black students to continue to celebrate their achievements, culture and place in America. He also hopes to see non-Black attendees.
“Successful African Americans are facts in history,” Collins said. “You cannot erase us.”
Collins will speak at 7 p.m. Friday night on the University Center’s third floor.
Christine Compton is a reporter for the Helena Independent Record.
Originally published on helenair.com, part of the BLOX Digital Content Exchange.
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