Cases & Legislation

Text for H.R.55 - 117th Congress (2021-2022): Emmett Till Antilynching Act

2023 Regular Session - SB 426

This guide is a compilation of state and local laws that have been passed in the wake of COVID-19, as a response to the rise of racist and xenophobic attacks on Asians and other minority groups as well as an attempt to address systemic injustices.

"Louisiana enacted the Separate Car Act which required separate railway cars for blacks and whites. In 1892 Homer Plessy – who was seven-eighths Caucasian – agreed to participate in a test to challenge the Act. He was solicited by the Comite des Citoyens (Committee of Citizens) a group of New Orleans residents who sought to repeal the Act. They asked Plessy who was technically black under Louisiana law to sit in a "whites only" car of a Louisiana train."

"The bill is part of a national campaign that began after high-profile incidents of Black students being forced to cut or change their hair."

"Limits authority of school district to become member of voluntary organization that administers interscholastic activities unless organization implements policy that prohibits discrimination based on race color or national origin. Clarifies meaning of race to include natural hair hair texture hair type and protective hairstyles for purposes of prohibited discrimination under antidiscrimination statutes. Clarifies that valid dress code or policy may not have disproportionate adverse impact on members of protected class to extent that is greater than impact on persons generally."

"Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker signed SB 1480 into law on March 23 2021. Effective immediately the law significantly amends the Illinois Human Rights Act (IHRA) Illinois Equal Pay Act (IEPA) and the Illinois Business Corporation Act. The amendments affect employers' ability to use criminal conviction records in employment decisions and imposes new reporting requirements regarding pay equity."

"New Policy Limits Circumstances in Which Federal Law Enforcement Can Use Chokeholds and 'No-Knock' Entries"

"This bill makes lynching a federal hate crime offense."

"This bill establishes the Commission to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African-Americans. The commission shall examine slavery and discrimination in the colonies and the United States from 1619 to the present and recommend appropriate remedies. Among other requirements the commission shall identify (1) the role of federal and state governments in supporting the institution of slavery (2) forms of discrimination in the public and private sectors against freed slaves and their descendants and (3) lingering negative effects of slavery on living African-Americans and society."

"US District Court for the Northern District of California - 584 F. Supp. 1406 (N.D. Cal. 1984) April 19 1984"

Addressing unlawful detainment and interference of press and ACLU and National Lawyer Guild neutral observers from doing their jobs.

"This case was the consolidation of cases arising in Kansas South Carolina Virginia Delaware and Washington D.C. relating to the segregation of public schools on the basis of race. In each of the cases African American students had been denied admittance to certain public schools based on laws allowing public education to be segregated by race. They argued that such segregation violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The plaintiffs were denied relief in the lower courts based on Plessy v. Ferguson which held that racially segregated public facilities were legal so long as the facilities for blacks and whites were equal.