Social Movements & the Law

"Recent reporting suggests that lawmakers across the country are ending a long-standing legal protection for police officers but that isn't quite true."

"After more than 120 years of flying over the state of Mississippi the Confederate battle flag is no longer a part of the state's official flag. On Tuesday Republican Gov. Tate Reeves signed into law a bill fast-tracked by the Mississippi Legislature over the weekend that calls for a new design. In a somber ceremony Reeves said he was signing the law to turn a page in Mississippi."

"A North Carolina city is using a restrictive ordinance to outlaw protest threatening to arrest anyone who even attempts to peacefully protest without a permit as part of an effort to protect a Confederate monument that sits outside its courthouse."

"A bill that would allow people to sue government officials including police if they violate their rights is going through some major changes. The bill better known as the 'Civil Rights Act' would get rid of qualified immunity and allow people to file their cases in state court instead of federal court."

"Four states have now passed legislation that would limit how teachers can discuss racism sexism and other controversial issues. It's Republican lawmakers latest effort to rein in the approach to subjects they claim are divisive and inappropriate."

"Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham signed two companion bills into law on Monday that will protect against discrimination for natural hair hairstyles or cultural or religious headdress in schools and workplaces."

"Arguing that a new law is intended to 'suppress the viewpoints of Black-led organizations and their allies' a coalition of groups Tuesday challenged the constitutionality of changes championed by Gov. Ron DeSantis to crack down on violent protests."

"Many admit the recent confirmation of California's new Attorney General Rob Bonta proves there is a place for Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) representation across all levels of government."

"Alabama voters will decide on Nov. 3 whether to start an effort to take outdated racist language out of the state constitution such as the requirement for segregated schools and revise the massive document into a more understandable form."

"Arizona recdisently expanded provisions of the Arizona Civil Rights Act (ACRA) to cover pregnancy and pregnancy-related conditions. Additionally following a national trend in response to perceived state and federal inaction cities in Arizona on their own passed new ordinances that expands protected categories and coverage."

"Bill would dismantle police officer immunity against lawsuits."

"Dozens of protesters sued Chicago's police chief and several officers on Thursday in federal court accusing them of brutal attacks and false arrests during social justice demonstrations this summer."

"Calling it a "moral mandate" Washington Gov. Jay Inslee a Democrat signed a dozen bills into law on Tuesday that backers hope will improve policing in the state reduce the use of deadly force and ensure that when deadly encounters do occur the investigations are thorough and independent."

"The Monell Rule is the most important racial justice issue you've never heard of."

" Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin who was previously convicted of murdering George Floyd pleaded not guilty on Thursday to violating a Black teen's civil rights in 2017. "

"A group of New York City students filed a sweeping lawsuit on Tuesday that accuses the United States’ largest public school system of perpetuating racism via a flawed admissions process for selective programs that favors white students."

"Standard legal ethics courses long considered dry and theoretical by many students have experienced a renaissance over the past two years due to the pandemic and an increased focus on social justice."

A proposal to establish a task force to study and prepare recommendations for how to give reparations to African Americans passed the California Assembly on Thursday.

U.S. Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) told The Root during an Instagram live interview on Juneteenth that he agrees with the spirit of the “defund the police” movement but is not for an all-out abolishment of law enforcement. He also delved into what exactly defunding the police looks like from his perspective and how…

The long-hidden racist attack on "Black Wall Street" and its residents is finally in the open — and raising questions about all that Americans don’t know and have tried to hide.

Black historians and community members in Maryland pooled resources to reclaim thousands of pages documenting the auction and sale of enslaved Black

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Often portrayed as an abolitionist, Hamilton may have enslaved people in his own household

Sara Lomax-Reese owns WURD, one of a handful of black-owned and operated radio stations in the US.

Longstanding inequalities have led to the current wave of protests.

Research has extensively documented the differences between the Black and white experience in the US, from wealth and education to incarceration.

In 1933, faced with a housing shortage, the federal government began a program explicitly designed to increase — and segregate — America's housing stock. Author Richard Rothstein says the housing programs begun under the New Deal were tantamount to a "state-sponsored system of segregation."

ATLANTA (AP) — A white gunman was charged Wednesday with killing eight people at three Atlanta-area massage parlors in an attack that sent terror through the Asian American community , which has increasingly been targeted during the coronavirus pandemic.

The family of Ahmaud Arbery, a Black jogger who was chased by three white men in pickup trucks and gunned down in south Georgia in 2020, says that the men's federal hate crimes trial will do what the state court did not - reckon with race.

BRUNSWICK, Ga. (AP) — The white men who chased and killed Ahmaud Arbery as he ran on a residential street remained free for more than two months, with police and prosecutors appearing to accept their story that the young Black man was a fleeing criminal who turned and attacked before being fatally shot.