KENTUCKY — On this week's "In Focus Kentucky" program, we’re highlighting Black History Month, also known as African American History Month, which is celebrated each February. It is a federally recognized time to reflect on the significant roles that Black Americans played in shaping U.S. history. 

State Rep. George Brown Jr., D-Lexington, joined this segment to discuss several efforts at the federal, state and local government level to stop diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs and initiatives.

"We've come a long way in the history of this country, and I think we've got a long way to go," he said. "But I think that what we had initially with forming the United States of America and this country, that initially only white male landowners could vote, we came all the way around. And early in the 20th century, was it permissible for women to vote, white women to vote? And then in 1964, 1965, African Americans gained the right to vote. So the promises of America are fleeting, and they've been long term to us getting there."

"It didn't come easy. There were people who died, people who were killed, but the right for us to be able to vote and to be contributing members of society is a part of what we've got to hold fast to. And we've got to fight for it. It is something that so fragile; it can be taken away. And as we have moved into this new presidential administration, it concerns me that we're at a place, in a space, that the things that we've taken for granted for so long in America could be flipped upside down."

"I think that when we had people that did the framework of this country, did the Constitution and put things in place ... they anticipated a rogue executive, but they didn't anticipate a complicit Congress that would not do its job." 

You can watch the full In Focus Kentucky segment in the player above.