The Center began in the wake of the mid-2020 murder of George Floyd and after a 2019 mass shooting at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas. In 2020, Walmart’s Chief Executive Doug McMillon said at the time: “Slavery, lynching, the concept of separate but equal and the other realities from our past have morphed into a set of systems today that are all too often, unjust.”

However, Walmart’s announcement last week followed a string of legal victories by conservative groups that have filed an onslaught of lawsuits challenging corporate and federal programs aimed at elevating minority and women-owned businesses and employees.

Donald Trump’s election victory escalates the growing activist movement that puts companies in the crosshairs of heated DEI debates. Walmart, which employs 1.6 million employees, is the nation’s largest employer to join the unwinding of DEI initiatives.

Boeing recently dismantled its DEI department and reassigned staffers. “We’re going to go through a little bit of a tumultuous period here in terms of things that are called DEI,” said Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg. Boeing will focus on making “sure that everybody’s got a chance, nobody’s being discriminated against.”

Other companies that have recently backed away from DEI policies include Ford, JPMorgan Chase, Deere & Co., Lowe's, Tractor Supply and Harley-Davidson.

Earlier this year, Walmart changed the title of its chief diversity officer to chief belonging offer and shifted away from using the term “diversity, equity and inclusion” in company documents.

“We’ve been on a journey and know we aren’t perfect, but every decision comes from a place of wanting to foster a sense of belonging, to open doors to opportunities for all our associates, customers and suppliers and to be a Walmart for everyone,” Walmart spokeswoman Molly Blakeman said last week.