The Defenders Online | A Civil Rights Blog

The Origins of Black History Month

The Editors — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 00:07:55 +0000

By Daryl Michael Scott Reprinted by permission of the Association for The Study of African American Life and History www.asalh.org The story of Black History Month begins in Chicago during the late summer of 1915. An alumnus of the University of Chicago with many friends in the city, Carter G. Woodson traveled from Washington, D.C. [...]

LDF Files Brief in Housing Discrimination Case

The Editors — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 00:06:27 +0000

LDF filed an amicus curiae (“friend of the court”) brief in the United States Supreme Court in Magner v. Gallagher. In Magner, a group of private landlords of low-income housing challenged the City of St. Paul’s practice of selectively targeting them for heightened housing code enforcement. The plaintiffs alleged that this practice increased the costs [...]

Does This Story Sound Familiar?

The Editors — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 15:17:06 +0000

By Lee A. Daniels
Peter Applebome’s Feb. 2 column in the New York Times about the decision of the Latino community in East Haven, Connecticut to challenge the campaign of harassment some officers in that city’s police department had mounted against them recalls an anecdote author Patricia Sullivan recounted in her recent, important history of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

Washington Post: Defense lawyer fights racism in death row cases

The Editors — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 19:48:51 +0000

By Lonnae O’Neal Parker via the Washington Post There’s a steadfast cheeriness to Christina Swarns as she talks rapid fire about the contours of her day. There are the rigors of her end-to-end Manhattan commute, how rarely she dresses like a grown-up and the usual challenges of the professional working mom. But that changes when the conversation [...]

Obama on Google Plus – Ahead of the Curve Again?

The Editors — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 19:46:04 +0000

By Lee A. Daniels
Has Barack Obama, who schooled the nation four years ago in how to use the social media to build a political movement just shown us again that he’s ahead of the curve in wedding his political ideals and persona with the new communications technology and thinking to connect with people at an individual level – and, even more important, have them feel they’ve connected with him?

Newt’s Poor Record on Civil Rights

The Editors — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 22:01:48 +0000

By Kenneth J. Cooper
As a Georgia congressman, Newt Gingrich was no friend of civil rights. He voted against civil rights bills and mouthed the inflammatory arguments of conservative opponents of black progress.

JBHE Chronology of Major Landmarks in the Progress of African Americans in Higher Education

The Editors — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 22:01:07 +0000

For most of American history, a majority of the black population in this country was prohibited from learning to read or write. Today African Americans are enrolling in higher education in record numbers. Here are some key events that occurred along the way.

Embattled Connecticut Police Chief Resigns; Department Faces Prospect of More Officers’ Arrests

The Editors — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 21:59:17 +0000

By Lee A. Daniels
The racial crisis which last week led to the arrests of four police officers of the small Connecticut town of East Haven deepened Monday as its embattled police chief resigned from office amid word that he could soon be arrested, too, along with more of the department’s officers.

The State of the Union: The “Back Story” for Black America

The Editors — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 20:12:08 +0000

By Lee A. Daniels
President Obama showed again in delivering his State of The Union message that, contrary to the tinny blasts emanating from the Right and despite an economy stacked against him, he’s ready to reprise the star-turn as formidable campaigner that won him the White House in 2008.

Obama College-Aid Proposals Underscore Importance of Pell Grants

The Editors — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 18:02:21 +0000

By The Editors
Some educational and political observers readily ascribe President Obama’s proposals unveiled Friday to restrain the increasing costs of college-going for students and their families while compelling colleges to improve the “value” of their curricular offerings as more symbolic than substantive – as political theater meant for the campaign trail.

N.Y.P.D. Officer Pleads Guilty to Civil Rights Violation

The Editors — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 17:52:57 +0000

By The Editors
The bullying swagger of Michael Daragjati, once apparently his perverse badge of honor, was nowhere in evidence earlier this week as he sat in Brooklyn’s federal district court.

F.B.I. Arrests Four Connecticut Police Officers In Racial Harassment of Latino Residents

The Editors — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 16:05:34 +0000

By The Editors
The contentious relationship between the police force of a small Connecticut town and its Latino community reached a new stage Tuesday when the Federal Bureau of Investigation arrested four of the town’s police officers and charged them with racially profiling and harassing Latinos.

Winter 2005: Donald L. Hollowell: 1917-2004

The Editors — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 18:30:52 +0000

Donald L. Hollowell, a leading civil rights advocate in the state of Georgia during the 1950s and 1960s, died this past December of heart failure in Atlanta. He was 87 years old.

Carl E. Clark, American Hero

The Editors — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 16:07:52 +0000

By Lee A. Daniels
Last week, during a ceremony saturated with pomp and circumstance and profound historical resonance, Carl E. Clark, a Navy veteran, was awarded a medal by the Secretary of the Navy for the kind of wartime devotion to duty – saving the lives of hundreds of his fellow sailors – Hollywood makes movies about.

Romney’s Record on Diversity

The Editors — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 16:06:50 +0000

By Kenneth J. Cooper
To the list of issues on which Mitt Romney has changed positions—gay rights, universal health care and abortion rights—add affirmative action, that byproduct of the civil rights movement.

The Downside of Bigger Down Payments: Locking Blacks Out of the Housing Market

The Editors — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 16:05:29 +0000

By Deborah Siegel
A new study warns that a Federal proposal to require a minimum 20 percent down payment of prospective of prospective homebuyers would substantially hurt the chances of many African Americans and Latinos to get such mortgages.

The Real Right Stuff

The Editors — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 17:15:24 +0000

By Lee A. Daniels
So, it’s clear now what really drives the crowd – or is “mob” a better word?—who show up at Republican Party debates, right?

Winter 1996: Blacks Travel Further to Attend College Than All Other Ethnic Groups

The Editors — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 21:50:49 +0000

Because black students are at least three times as likely to come from poor families as are white students, one would expect that blacks on average would be more likely than white students to attend schools closer to home. But just the opposite is true.

Holder: Defending Voting Rights “a moral imperative”

The Editors — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 21:46:16 +0000

By The Editors
U.S. Attorney General Eric H. Holder Monday continued the Obama administration’s strong defense of voting rights and assertion that so-called voter ID laws are a threat to those rights.

Thinking Outside the Cell Series: Hiding

The Editors — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 21:45:30 +0000

By Tanea Lunsford
Having an incarcerated parent often means being part of a family where hiding the truth is a way of life.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is born in Atlanta, Georgia

The Editors — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 20:31:12 +0000

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is born in Atlanta, Georgia

LDF Files Friend of the Court Brief in Supreme Court Healthcare Case

The Editors — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 16:12:21 +0000

On Friday, LDF filed a “friend of the court” brief in the U.S. Supreme Court case, Department of Health & Human Services v. Florida. The brief urges the Court to uphold the minimum coverage provision of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the landmark health care legislation passed by Congress in 2010, which has been challenged on constitutional grounds.

Martin Luther King, Jr. The Nobel Peace Prize Acceptance Speech

The Editors — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 21:01:55 +0000

By Martin Luther King, Jr.
Editor’s Note -- On this weekend especially devoted to celebrating the life and work of Martin Luther King, Jr., it is worth re-reading the remarks he made in accepting the award and then the lecture he gave the following day nearly a half century ago. King’s identification of the “spiritual and moral lag, which constitutes modern man’s chief expresses itself in [the] three larger problems … [of] racial injustice, poverty, and war” resound largely in our present moment. They underscore again how large and great and timeless was the mission he gave his life to.

The Quest for Peace and Justice: The Nobel Peace Prize Lecture

The Editors — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 21:01:21 +0000

By Martin Luther King, Jr.
There is a sort of poverty of the spirit which stands in glaring contrast to our scientific and technological abundance. The richer we have become materially, the poorer we have become morally and spiritually. We have learned to fly the air like birds and swim the sea like fish, but we have not learned the simple art of living together as brothers.

The Black Tax: Alive and Still Powerful

The Editors — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 16:04:24 +0000

By Lee A. Daniels
What Negro Americans faced then was a fierce discrimination that confined them literally and figuratively to a very small corner of American life. Entire categories of jobs, or levels of jobs were off-limits to blacks, and there was virtually no protection for the endemic on-the-job racism those who had jobs endured.