racial discrimination
June 12, 2013 -
With the high court expected to hand down a ruling soon on the constitutionality of the key section of the landmark civil rights law, a new report warns of what could come to pass if Section 5 is weakened or eliminated altogether.
June 7, 2013 -
North Carolina lawmakers this week voted to repeal the Racial Justice Act, a groundbreaking state law that allows death row inmates to have their sentences commuted to life without parole if they can prove racial bias played a role in their cases.
May 31, 2013 -
Republican Gov. Bob McDonnell unveiled a plan this week to automatically restore voting rights to nonviolent felons in a state where one in five African-American adults is disenfranchised due to an unusually harsh law. Civil rights advocates praised the move, but some say the governor should go further.
April 8, 2013 -
The New Orleans mayor is fighting a consent degree aimed at improving the abysmal conditions inside the Orleans Parish Prison, arguing it would adversely affect people who aren't incarcerated. But in a city that incarcerates more of its residents than anywhere else in the world, will this "us vs. them" strategy work?
April 2, 2013 -
The Supreme Court, poised to rule on a major affirmative action case out of Texas, accepts another one from Michigan. What might this say about dismantling race-conscious programs?
March 19, 2013 -
When the NAACP challenged Jim Crow laws, it selected plaintiffs who would elicit both sympathy and outrage. Today conservatives are using the same tactic, as illustrated by Fisher v. The University of Texas -- a case challenging consideration of race in admissions.
March 15, 2013 -
A federal judge recently reversed the controversial conviction of Black Panther Albert Woodfox for the 1972 killing of a guard at Louisiana's Angola prison. Amnesty International has launched a campaign asking the state attorney general not to appeal in the case that has come to be known as the "Angola 3" for the number of inmates held in prolonged solitary confinement following the guard's death.
