Gregory N. Washington, the first Black president of George Mason University, remembers the tumult on campus as he began his new job in 2020.

It was the era of Black Lives Matter, and students were protesting over the man the school is named after, a complicated Virginia historical figure and slaveholder. Demonstrators were demanding that a statue of Mason on campus be torn down, Dr. Washington said.

Five years later, George Mason’s statue remains intact, and politics are once again convulsing college campuses. But instead of contending with student protests, today Dr. Washington — who made it his mission to reduce racial tensions at George Mason — is in the cross hairs of the Trump administration, accused of violating the Civil Rights Act by discriminating against white academics in hiring and promotions.

President Trump’s interpretation of the Civil Rights Act, historically aimed at protecting Black people and members of other minority groups from discrimination, has infuriated his critics. And as if to twist the knife, the Trump administration has also demanded a personal public apology from Dr. Washington over his efforts to support racial diversity — which it described as unlawful and discriminatory.

Dr. Washington has refused.

“It’s to protect my reputation and the reputation of the campus,” he said in an interview last week.

The refusal has made the George Mason president one of the few university leaders who has explicitly, and publicly, challenged the Trump administration. He joins a short list of other higher education leaders, including the presidents of Harvard and Princeton.