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Civil Rights

Can North Carolina’s Moral Mondays Movement Spark New Civil Rights Fire?

December 31, 2016 William Barber II, www.ebony.com , ,
By William Barber II for Ebony - Donald Trump’s triumph across the South and Midwest, which won him the Electoral College and the White House, did not extend to Governor Pat McCrory in my home state of North Carolina. After fighting his loss with false accusations of voter fraud, McCrory finally conceded in early December, becoming the only incumbent GOP governor in America to lose reelection. But partisan extremists in the North Carolina legislature called a special session last week to strip power from McCrory’s opponent, Democrat Roy Cooper.

South Korean Lawmakers Vote To Impeach Park Geun-hye

December 10, 2016 Staff, www.zoominkorea.org , , ,
By Zoom in Korea. Seoul, South Korea - On December 9, lawmakers of the South Korean National Assembly passed a historical motion to impeach the current president Park Geun-hye. 234 out of 300 legislators in the National Assembly voted in favor of the impeachment motion. Now that the National Assembly has passed the motion to impeach Park, it is up to the Constitutional Court to decide whether to make the impeachment final in accordance with the constitution. Park will be suspended for the time being as the Constitutional Court deliberates. During this period, the current Prime Minister, Hwang Kyo-ahn, will serve as the acting president. In order for the impeachment to go officially in effect, six out of the nine judges of the Constitutional Court must agree to rule in favor of the motion within 180 days.

Newsletter: Turn Widespread Discontent Into Mass Movement

November 20, 2016 Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers, www.PopularResistnace.org , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
By Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers for Popular Resistance. With the election of Donald Trump as president the struggle continues for economic, racial and environmental justice. We knew we would be in struggle no matter who was elected and have been calling for #NoHoneymoon protests for months. We also support calls made for protests in the days before the inauguration and after them. We expect to see a growing presidency of protest under Trump as the movement will grow and continue to demand justice, human rights and a people-based democracy. We need to build now, provide a vision and have conversations at the local level so when the attacks on our communities occur and false promises of Donald Trump are made obvious people know where they can turn. We can turn widespread discontent into a mass movement with the power to transform the nation.

In This Election, I Hear Echoes Of The Past

November 19, 2016 Michael Eisenscher, www.PopularResistance.org , , , , , ,
By Michael Eisenscher for Popular Resistance. The Trump administration has no mandate. If we do our work well, the people will be with us. Our job is to help transform popular discontent into a political force – a movement that demands that the nation live up to its highest ideals. A majority of Trump voters are not reactionary ideologues, virulent racists, rabid nativists or crude sexists. They voted their pain, anger, fear and hopelessness. They voted their cynicism about an economic system that has left them behind and a corrupt political system that privileges the rich and well connected while treating them as patsies. But whatever individual motivations may have led them to vote for Trump, there can be no doubt that their votes for Trump gave racism and sexism a pass and have emboldened the most racist, xenophobic, misogynist and homophobic forces. And if the outcome of the election were not sufficient, Trump has put his personal stamp of approval on the forces of reaction by appointing Breitbart News executive Steve Bannon – a virulent racist, sexist, homophobe and anti-Semite – as his top White House counselor. Hate crimes, which increased throughout the campaign, have begun to spike following the election.

Police Are Violating Civil Rights Of Dakota Access Pipeline Opponents

October 27, 2016 Michael McLaughlin, www.huffingtonpost.com , , ,
By Michael McLaughlin for The Huffington Post - This week, the Standing Rock Sioux called on the Department of Justice to investigate state and local authorities for civil rights violations during protests over the controversial Dakota Access Pipeline. But North Dakota authorities are refuting the tribe’s accusations, saying they’ve been patient and accommodating with protesters. “We keep getting portrayed as the jackbooted thugs coming down for a confrontation,”

Civil Rights Group Sues Federal Gov Over Surveillance Of Black Activists

October 26, 2016 Aaron Morrison, www.mic.com , , , ,
By Aaron Morrison for Identities Mic - It's no longer a secret that police have conducted surveillance on activists involved in the Movement for Black Lives. Increasingly, these activists say they want to know exactly what's in the files the government may be keeping on them. Color of Change, a national racial justice group, filed a lawsuit in federal court in New York on Thursday, over the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's rejection of its request for surveillance information on Black Lives Matter activists.

Civil Rights Agency Blasts EPA For Weak Environmental Justice Record

October 1, 2016 Zahra Hirji, www.insideclimatenews.org , ,
By Zahra Hirji for Inside Climate News - A new report by the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights charges the Environmental Protection Agency with doing too little about environmental discrimination against low-income and minority communities, with one commissioner calling the agency "practically toothless" in dealing with the issue. The Commission on Civil Rights, an independent, bipartisan agency, focused on the EPA in its annual statutory enforcement report that is sent to Congress and the White House.

Laura Flanders Show: African American Cooperatives & Civil Rights

September 8, 2016 Staff, www.therealnews.com , ,
By Staff of TRNN - This week, Laura Flanders interviews Jessica Gordon Nembhard on the role that economic cooperation played in the civil rights movement

New Film ‘Love and Solidarity’, Non-violence For Systemic Change

August 14, 2016 Will Jones and Mike Honey, www.portside.org , ,
By Will Jones and Mike Honey for Portside. Non-violence is NOT passive, but is militant and effective theory and practice. Portside Moderator Will Jones interviews Honey about the film and highly respected, long time RELIGIOUS LEADER, organizer, and educator James Lawson. Will Jones: Why this film now? Mike Honey: James Lawson’s theory and practice, ranging from the early civil rights and anti-war movements until now, offers us on the left, in the streets, a long term view based on his experience of teaching and organizing since the 1950s. He never claims to have all of the answers but provides a framework that challenges us to not just protest but to transform situations and systems, to build coalitions, to win people over to sanity. The Black Lives Matter movement’s evolution from impressive protests in Ferguson and elsewhere to a platform and call for continued action is an example of both the power and challenges faced by us here in USA and globally.

Boycotts Won’t Change Mississippi—But History Shows How We Can

June 13, 2016 Jake McGraw, www.yesmagazine.org , ,
By Jake McGraw for Yes Magazine - On May 13, the U.S. Department of Education sent a letter to school districts across the country clarifying that Title IX, which prohibits sex discrimination in schools, applies to transgender students—most notably, their right to use the bathroom that matches their gender identity. The letter brought backlash from many quarters. But some of the harshest came from my home state of Mississippi, which has a long and brutal tradition of fighting the expansion of civil rights. Declaring his opposition on Facebook, Governor Phil Bryant chose language that evoked the ugliest ghosts of the state’s past...

Kent Wong: Life And Legacy Of A Civil Rights Activist

April 26, 2016 Stefanie Ritoper, www.newsroom.ucla.edu ,
By Stefanie Ritoper for UCLA News Room - I have been teaching nonviolence and social movements with Rev. Lawson for the past 15 years. He has had a huge impact in articulating a historic framework in the use of nonviolence in the United States. He’s been a leading scholar who has enlightened many about nonviolence-- not only college students, but also those in social justice movements nationwide. Major civil rights books have been written about him throughout the decades, and he was extremely influential in counseling Dr. King and key civil rights leaders on the necessity and power of nonviolence.

Federal Prosecutors Declined Police Prosecutions 96% Of The Time

March 15, 2016 Brian Bowling and Andrew Conte, www.triblive.com , ,
By Brian Bowling and Andrew Conte for Trib Live - Federal prosecutors declined to pursue civil rights allegations against law enforcement officers 96 percent of the time since 1995, a Tribune-Review investigation found. The Trib spent six months analyzing nearly 3 million federal records on how the Justice Department and its 94 U.S. Attorney offices handled criminal complaints against law enforcement officers from 1995 through 2015. The records include matters referred to Justice by the FBI and other agencies and those it opened on its own.

The Genius Of Huey P. Newton

January 24, 2016 Mumia Abu-Jamal, www.counterpunch.org , , ,
By Mumia Abu-Jamal for CounterPunch. To those of us who were alive–and sentient, the name Huey P. Newton evokes an era of mass resistance, of Black popular protest and of the rise of revolutionary organizations across the land. To those of subsequent eras, youth in their 20s, the name is largely unknown, as is the name of its greatest creation: The Black Panther Party. To those of us now known as ‘old heads’ and elders, such a transition from then to now seems almost unimaginable, but alas, looking out into the present is proof positive that the old saying, “History is written by the victors” has more than a grain of truth to it. History, it seems, is many things, but kind to the oppressed, it is not. It never has been.

NY Muslims Reach Settlement With NYPD In Surveillance Lawsuit

January 8, 2016 Hina Shamsi, www.aclu.org , ,
By Hina Shamsi for ACLU - A settlement in our challenge to NYPD surveillance of New York Muslims was announced today, heralding new safeguards to protect against bias-based and unjustified investigations of Muslim and other minority communities. The settlement was announced in Raza v. City of New York, a lawsuit on behalf of three New York Muslims, two mosques, and a Muslim non-profit organization, who alleged they were swept up in the NYPD’s dragnet surveillance of Muslims. The ACLU, the New York Civil Liberties Union, and the CLEAR project at CUNY School of Law filed the suit in 2013.

To Black Parents: Time For Civil Disobedience

December 25, 2015 Diane Ravitch, www.dianeravitch.net , , ,
By Diane Ravitch. Jamaal Bowman, principal of the Cornerstone Academy for Social Action Middle School in the Bronx, gives a dynamite interview aimed at black families about how to change the quality of education for their children. He says we are investing billions in standardized testing and ignoring what we should be doing in our communities. Black and brown children are being miseducated by current policies. High Stakes Testing and the Black Community: Just Say No! Standardized tests? Principal Jamaal Bowman says 'Know your rights'. President Obama recently spoke out against excessive standardized testing. The POTUS claimed that this issue, "takes the joy out of teaching and learning, both for them (teachers) and for the students".
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