Civil Rights Movements & the Law

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This blog post, part 2 in a series, discusses the coram nobis proceeding relating to Fred Korematsu's earlier conviction as a nisei prisoner of a Japanese internment camp in the United States during WWII.

Budget concerns and a lack of awareness have stymied efforts to make it official.

Zanelle Brown | Many states and local municipalities, as well as private businesses, will close up shop in observation of the new federal holiday, Juneteenth.

A daily independent global news hour with Amy Goodman & Juan González. Juneteenth Special: Historian Clint Smith on Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America; “No Atonement, No Repair”: Watch Nikole Hannah-Jones Call for Slavery Reparations in Speech to U.N. General Assembly; Harvard’s Deep Ties to Slavery: Report Shows It Profited, Then Tried to Erase History of Complicity

In a Juneteenth special, we mark the federal holiday that commemorates the day in 1865 when enslaved people in Galveston, Texas, learned of their freedom more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation. We speak to the writer and poet Clint Smith about Juneteenth and his new book, “How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America.” “When I think of Juneteenth, part of what I think about is the both-handedness of it,” Smith says, “that it is this moment in which we mourn the fact that freedom was kept from hundreds of thousands of enslaved people for years and for months after it had been attained by them, and then, at the same time, celebrating the end of one of the most egregious things that this country has ever done.” Smith says he recognizes the federal holiday marking Juneteenth as a symbol, “but it is clearly not enough.”

Today is the second official celebration of the Federal Holiday, Juneteenth. Some of us are working on this day. Some of us have the day off. Some of us

In addition to observing Juneteenth as a paid holiday for the first time in 2023, the university is developing a yearlong campaign to tell the story of Juneteenth and Black people in the Southwest.

The conservative majority said officers are immune to civil lawsuits over Miranda violations because the warnings are not constitutional rights.

"The labor conditions of incarcerated workers in many US prisons violate the most fundamental human rights to life and dignity," says Claudia Flores.

Education Week summarizes where state policymakers are attempting to censor the way teachers talk about racism and gender.

Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin has asked the state Court of Appeals to overturn his conviction for the 2020 murder of George Floyd, according to an appeal filed Monday.

Findings from the Minnesota Department of Human Rights April 27, 2022

Celebrate Arab American Heritage Month April is Arab American Heritage Month and all of last month we have been highlighting resources to learn more about Arab American issues. Below we recap those resources. National Arab American Heritage Month (NAAHM) celebrates the heritage, culture, and contributions of Arab Americans. Immigrants with origins from the Arab world

This week marks the second anniversary of the police murder of George Floyd. We speak with Washington Post reporters Robert Samuels and Toluse Olorunnipa, wh...

Text for H.R.55 - 117th Congress (2021-2022): Emmett Till Antilynching Act

Breonna Taylor's mother, Tamika Palmer, met with officials from the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division on Monday to ask them to investigate the fatal shooting of her daughter during a botched police raid in 2020 -- and ultimately to bring federal charges against the officers involved.

The U.S. Senate still must pass the CROWN Act before it can be approved by President Biden.

A lawsuit filed be a former Google employee on Friday alleged that the company engaged in systemic bias against Black employees and maintains a corporate culture that favors white males. The s…

Lawsuit accuses company of ‘racially biased corporate culture’ in which Black people comprise just 4.4% of employees

‎Show The JustPod, Ep Introducing the Legal Education Police Practices Consortium - Sep 15, 2021

NCSL's policing legislation database provides you with legislation introduced in all 50 states on law enforcement oversight, data, policing alternatives and collaboration, technology including body cameras, training, standards and certification, use of force standards and other issues.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Presidents typically say a few words before they turn legislation into law. But Joe Biden flipped the script Tuesday when it came time to put his signature on the Emmett Till Anti-Lynching Act.

Domestic abuse survivor Ny Nourn lived this pipeline. Then her fight against this system became a fight for others.

Lawmakers and activists are cautiously optimistic that the massive, sustained protest movement in the wake of George Floyd's death could bring major reforms that they have long pushed for.

"In the updated second edition of Whipping Girl, Julia Serano, a transsexual woman whose supremely intelligent writing reflects her diverse background as a lesbian transgender activist and professional biologist, shares her powerful experiences and observations -- both pre- and post-transition -- to reveal the ways in which fear, suspicion, and dismissiveness toward femininity shape our societal attitudes toward trans women, as well as gender and sexuality as a whole. Serano's well-honed arguments stem from her ability to bridge the gap between the often-disparate biological and social perspectives on gender. In this provocative manifesto, she exposes how deep-rooted the cultural belief is that femininity is frivolous, weak, and passive, and how this "feminine" weakness exists only to attract and appease male desire. In addition to debunking popular misconceptions about transsexuality, Serano makes the case that today's feminists and transgender activists must work to embrace and empower femininity -- in all of its wondrous forms."--provided by Amazon.com.

SNCC: The New Abolitionists influenced a generation of activists struggling for civil rights and seeking to learn from the successes and failures of those who built the fantastically influential Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. It is considered an indispensable study of the organization, of the 1960s, and of the process of social change. Includes a new introduction by the author.

"An urgent and definitive examination of how the legal system prevents accountability for police misconduct, from one of the country's leading scholars on policing"--;Despite recent high-profile murders that have brought attention to the pervasiveness of police misconduct, it remains nearly impossible to hold police accountable for abuses of power. Schwartz exposes the myriad ways in which our legal system protects police at all costs, with analysis about subjects ranging from qualified immunity to no-knock warrants. He paints a compelling picture of the human cost of our failing criminal justice system, and reveals what tragically familiar calls for "justice" truly entail. -- adapted from jacket