Your daily dose of civil rights and related news
Americans of all stripes mourn the death of Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones (D-OH). After graduating from Case Western University (thanks to a scholarship she attributed to affirmative action efforts), Jones went on to become the first Black woman to represent Ohio in Congress.
Supporters and opponents of an initiative to ban affirmative action in Nebraska are squabbling over the ballot language.
Meanwhile, the University of Nebraska is reporting great strides in hiring a diverse faculty.
Texas is set to execute a man who didn't kill anybody -- only the 8th time since the death penalty was reinstated that a man will be put to death as an accomplice to murder.
The Justice Department is looking into whether Princeton discriminates against Asian-American applicants through its affirmative action program.
The Hampton Roads, Virginia, city council is examining switching from a at-large to a ward-based system as a way to increase social, economic, and racial diversity on the board.
Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal (R) will not renew an anti-discrimination order put out by his predecessor, Gov. Kathleen Blanco (D). It's expiration leaves gay and lsbian state workers and contractors unprotected from discrimination.
Illinois civil rights activists are suing, alleging that the state's funding mechanism grossly short-changes minority school districts and gives their children an unequal education.
George E. Curry writes in the Chicago Defender about the continuing need for HBCU's. These institutions generate a disproportionate tally of Black college graduates and -- perhaps more importantly -- are willing to take chances on low to mid-range students and get them on the path to success.
Ann Friedman tries to calm the panic about how this generation of women are not sufficiently feminist.
Shenandoah Valley schools are hosting events to highlight the benefits of diversity after the racially charged murder of a Latino resident.
Corporations celebrate supplier diversity in Battle Creek, Michigan.
A federal appeals court ruled that a Tennessee school district did not violate the constitution when it banned students from wearing the Confederate flag, citing the possibility of enflaming racial tensions.
The Oklahoman: "For Oklahoma college students, diversity is a daily lesson".
What's truly miserable about the Texas case is that just last summer the exact same situation arose. A botched robbery turned into a murder - and despite not being premeditated, the robber/killer got executed pretty quickly. The getaway driver - who honestly can't be tried for worse than conspiracy to commit robbery, accomplice to robbery - gets tried as an accomplice to a murder that he had no idea was going to happen and gets capital. Last year's case had the added complication that the defendant was a poor black man and the victim white and the son of a powerful attorney.
ReplyDeleteLast summer, activists mobilized, the media covered intensively, and the Governor granted clemency. But extrajudicial measures like that can't always pick up the slack. When our laws are so fundamentally broken. One of the reasons I support the abolition of the death penalty - I'd rather not allow potential atrocities, especially when the trade-off is that we use a different and less costly mechanism of permanent removal from society.