Race and Civil Rights

October 10, 2013 - With elections fast approaching, officials in Florida and Virginia are hard at work striking names from their lists of eligible voters. But their efforts are the target of legal challenges by those who say questionable purge methods threaten to disenfranchise eligible voters.

October 10, 2013 - A student at a historically black North Carolina college who had his right to run for office challenged has won a city council seat, and students at another of the state's HBCUs marched to the polls en masse in a local election that represented a repudiation of right-wing attacks on public schools.

October 4, 2013 - Held in solitary confinement at Louisiana's notorious Angola prison for 41 years for a murder he did not commit, Herman Wallace passed away today -- just three days after his conviction was overturned and he was set free.

October 1, 2013 - The Justice Department wants to subject the entire state to preapproval for any elections changes under Section Three of the Voting Rights Act -- not just the 40 counties previously covered under the law's now-defunct Section Five.

September 30, 2013 - U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder is expected to announce today in North Carolina that he will take aim at provisions in the state's restrictive new election law that shorten the early voting period, ban same-day registration, disallow out-of-precinct voting, and impose strict photo ID requirements on voters.

September 25, 2013 - The North Carolina-based banking giant has been ordered to fork over back pay to African Americans unfairly denied entry-level jobs at the company's Charlotte operations.

September 25, 2013 - The outcome of next year's election, with 33 U.S. Senate seats up for grabs, could lead to a Voting Rights Act that's in even worse shape than it is now. Here's why.