Race and Civil Rights

March 28, 2012 - The discussion about the Affordable Care Act has focused on whether the federal government can compel people to buy insurance, but the law's expansion of Medicaid to cover millions of low-income people is also being challenged. If this is upended, the courts could be flooded with challenges on everything from environmental protection to civil rights laws.

March 21, 2012 - Across the South and country, the gun lobby has pushed laws like Florida's "Stand Your Ground" measure, which local police say is the reason they haven't brought charges in the shooting death of 17-year old Travyon Martin. The result: A disturbing rise in "justifiable homicides," including cases eerily similar to the Martin killing.

March 16, 2012 - Touted as the cure for what ails public education, charter schools have historical roots that are rarely acknowledged.

March 14, 2012 - Last week immigrant rights advocates retraced the route of the historic civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery led by Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in a powerful show of solidarity between African-Americans and Latinos.

February 24, 2012 - Attending the memorial service for deceased civil rights veteran Robert "Bob" Mants, Jr. and a talk by theologian Jim Wallis leads to reflection on the cruelty of Alabama's apartheid-like immigration law and what Christians are called to do in the face of such injustice.

February 21, 2012 - Wake County, N.C. Commission Chair Paul Coble, who is running for Congress, led an effort to support a constitutional ban on gay marriage. He is also battling a sustainability initiative that he suggests is part of a shadowy United Nations plot to take over the world.

February 1, 2012 - Few realize Black History Month's ties to the history of coal miners in West Virginia. And as mountaintop removal mining continues there, that history is in danger of being erased.