How do social movements arise, wield power, and decline? Renowned scholar Linda Gordon investigates these questions in a groundbreaking work, narrating the stories of many of America's most influential twentieth-century social movements. Beginning with the turn-of-the-century settlement house movement, Gordon then scrutinizes the 1920s Ku Klux Klan and its successors, the violent American fascist groups of the 1930s. Profiles of two Depression-era movements follow--the Townsend campaign that brought us Social Security and the creation of unemployment aid. Proceeding then to the 1955 Montgomery bus boycott, which inspired the civil rights movement and launched Martin Luther King Jr.'s career, the narrative barrels into the 1960s-70s with Cesar Chavez's farmworkers' union. The concluding chapter illumines the 1970s women's liberation movement through the dramatic story of the Boston-area organizations Bread and Roses and the Combahee River Collective. Separately and together, these seven chapters animate American history, reminding us of the power of collective activism.-- Publisher description

In the case of Louisiana v. Callais, the Supreme Court on Wednesday could decide the fate of a key section of the Voting Rights Act, a centerpiece of the Civil Rights Movement. Here is a recap of the major events and cases related to the act.

Decision reversed lower court ruling that weakened zoning restrictions put in place decades ago to preserve lands

The American Bar Association remains committed to its long-time policies and positions that reject the use of racial profiling in law enforcement and immigration enforcement activities.

Research and advocacy for the future of libraries.

In September 2025, John Roberts Jr. will mark the 20th anniversary of his confirmation as Chief Justice of the United States. Roberts and his conservative colleagues on the court thus far have etched legacies in a number of areas of the law, but only one has major implications for democracy’s future.

Writing that it “wants out of this abhorrent system of racial discrimination,” Louisiana on Wednesday told the Supreme Court in the case of Louisiana v. Callais to leave in place […]

"My Father's House is both a biography of iconic African-American Congressman John Conyers Jr. and his more than half-century of groundbreaking legislation, and a son's memoir of leveraging his own voice in a world that his father helped create"-- Provided by publisher.;My Father's House by John Conyers III is a reflective tribute to his father, Congressman John James Conyers, Jr., blending personal memoir with political history. It offers an intimate portrait of Conyers as both a civil rights icon and a complex family man, highlighting his legislative legacy and his mentorship of key national figures. Through his son's eyes, the book humanizes the giants of the civil rights era and underscores their enduring influence on modern American politics.

The department has focused its civil rights efforts on stamping out campus antisemitism since Donald Trump returned to the White House.

National Constitution Center President and CEO Jeffrey Rosen and guest experts from all sides of the debate convene for live conversations from Philadelphia ...

The justices' 6-3 decision in a case from Tennessee effectively protects from legal challenges many efforts by President Donald Trump's Republican administration and state governments to roll back protections for transgender people. Another 26 states have laws similar to the one in Tennessee.

In a 6-3 decision on Wednesday, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld Tennessee’s ban on puberty blockers and hormone therapy for transgender youth, paving the way for other bans on trans healthcare to remain in effect in 24 other states. According to the ACLU, over 100,000 transgender people under the age of 18 now live in a state with a ban on their healthcare. “This is a fight that extends back 100 years, and we will keep fighting for 100 more years,” says Chase Strangio, the first openly trangender attorney to make oral arguments before the Supreme Court and the co-director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s LGBTQ & HIV Project.

Title IX aims to prevent sex-based discrimination in education, but different administrations have taken different interpretations of what that means and what constitutes discrimination.

The Democratic controlled cities of Salt Lake City and Boise, Idaho, adopted new city flags this week that show support for LGBTQ+ people in defiance of new laws passed by their states’ Republican-controlled Legislatures.

2,658 likes, 46 comments - chasestrangio on May 7, 2025: "Yesterday the Supreme Court allowed Trump’s sweeping and animus-driven ban on open trans military service to go into effect. In a 6-3 order with no reasoning or written opinions, the Court opened the door to the mass expulsion of trans people from the military. This is a devastating development in Trump-related litigation but I wanted to also offer some context about the legal standards in military litigation where the courts afford wide latitude to the federal executive. That does not mean this Court is not ready to green light many forms of discrimination and executive power grabs, they are. But I wanted to at least calibrate what this particular action means in light of decades of terrible precedent around the military. When we think about concepts like “restoring the rule of law” and living under “a police state” it feels important to remember that the rule of law is itself violent and that many people have been constructively if not explicitly living under a police state here for decades and longer. Each action from each branch of government builds on frameworks that were built over centuries and our resistance will continue no matter what this or any government tries to do to us. We are undeniably facing many existential threats and also we retain our ability to love and care for each other and mobilize every day.".

The reasonable accommodation mandate was intended to ensure access for people with disabilities. Yet some people with disabilities who are eligible for and in n

‘Clear premise’ was to give trans and biological women same sex discrimination rights, says official who helped draft act

Three law students on Tuesday sued a U.S. civil rights agency, claiming that its probe into diversity policies at 20 large law firms is illegal and could

As a civil rights attorney, your impact extends far beyond individual cases and courtroom victories. You stand at the forefront...

Attacking colleges and universities has reverberations far beyond campuses.

Americans of Conscience Checklist is an email checklist for democracy, voting access, equality for ALL and good news for the American people.

A federal judge has blocked enforcement of President Donald Trump’s executive order banning transgender people from serving in the U.S. military.

Racist covenants once impacted where minority families in Tucson could live.

This semester, 12 clinical law students, representing six law schools, participated in our Spring 2024 Movement Lawyering Clinical Cohort. Through the work in the cohort, their skills were used to advance the campaigns of four of our beloved movement partners. The cohort's reach extended from the Northeast to the Midwest and down to the South, showcasing the broad impact of our collective work. The students' work and research shared the common theme of "Ending Criminalization and Building Thriving Black Communities Our Way."

Transgender Journalist reporting on LGBTQ+ legislation, news, and life every day. Linktree/Socials: https://linktr.ee/erininthemorn Website/booking: https://www.erininthemorning.com/

"Collins views American society as being trapped in the so-called prisoner's dilemma. According to this classic piece of game theory, two prisoners whose interests would normally be aligned are put in a situation that compels them to betray their solidarity with each other. As Collins tells it, all of us are prisoners, and if we banded together we could create policies that would lead to a better, happier world. But those leading the Anti-Civil Rights Movement, such as Edward Blum, have repeatedly found ways to split coalitions-to pit marginalized groups against each others-whenever those coalitions have threatened the power of conservative elites to set the political and legal agenda. One of the central tools in the conservative arsenal has been affirmative action, which has had a long history of dividing the Asian American and Black American communities, going back to the anti-busing sentiment among Chinese Americans in San Francisco in the early 1970s. In 2013, the same year he helped gut the Voting Rights Act in the Shelby County v. Holder case, Blum created the Students for Fair Admissions and brought a suit against Harvard University for discriminating against Asian Americans-the latest in a long string of prisoner dilemmas designed to undermine social progress. Collins's groundbreaking work is a field guide to the personalities, funding, and dilemmas that characterize the war between the Civil Rights Movement and the Anti-Civil Rights Movement-between the forces represented, respectively, by Thurgood Marshall and the one who replaced him on the Supreme Court, Clarence Thomas. Reading this book helps readers better understand the battles that have been fought in the past, but also where the next fight might take place, and what might be necessary in order to win"--

The AAUP, along with the National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education and other plaintiffs has filed a lawsuit to block Trump’s unlawful and unconstitutional DEI executive orders,

The Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights issued a