Social Movements & the Law

‎Show The JustPod, Ep Introducing the Legal Education Police Practices Consortium - Sep 15, 2021

This panel discusses how we have reached this point as a nation, how to recognize antisemitism when we see it, and how to combat it.

For 11-year-old Marley Dias, the call to activism began with books. Frustrated by not seeing other Black girls as the main characters in the books in her school library, she decided to take action and make a change. The wildly successful social media project, #1000blackgirlbooks, Dias launched nearly a year ago with the help of her mother, hit a nerve—and has exceeded its goal of collecting and distributing 1,000 books. The sixth grader already knows that racism and other built-in barriers are “keeping kids like me from reaching our full potential.” Tackling racism, she says, begins with a conversation. In a new national video on institutional racism, Dias looks to educators across the country and asks: “Do you care enough to look closer, to talk to each other. To your students, to your communities?” And “To change the dialogue?”

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

Community organizers Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors and Opal Tometi used the social media hashtag #BlackLivesMatter after the 2012 acquittal of George Zimmerman, the killer of Trayvon Martin, a 17- year-old Florida teen, and set off a movement to address the ongoing violence and killings of Black men, women and children at the hands of police (law enforcement) and vigilantes. Similar to the Civil Rights Movement, the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement brought attention to how Black lives have been deprived of their basic human rights and dignity. The movement also challenges people to address issues of racism and inequality around the world. The BLM movement also helped inspire another related but equally important movement, the #SayHerName campaign. This campaign was started in 2014 by the African American Policy Forum (AAPF) and Center for Intersectionality and Social Policy Studies (CISPS). The #SayHerName campaign brings awareness to the state violence that is visited upon Black women and girls. The intention of this guide is to provide information resources related to the BLM movement and its founding. Resources have been placed in various topics or categories. It goes without saying that many titles could have been placed in more than one category. As with most online library guides new resources or categories may be added. Please revisit this site for updates. ~ Kofi Acree, Director, John Henrik Clarke Africana Library

"In her work as an appellate judge, Justice Ginsburg translated this devotion into a jurisprudence focused on 'We the People,' substantively and procedurally. Substantively, Justice Ginsburg insisted that faithfully employed, the words of the Constitution supported an expansive understanding of who was included in 'We the People,' despite the framers' narrow understanding of the phrase when it appeared in the preamble to the Constitution. Expressed also as a jurisprudence of equality and opportunity, Justice Ginsburg believed that the phrase promised equal dignity for people despite their gender, gender identity, race, or disability. Procedurally, 'We the People' shaped Justice Ginsburg's approach to the process of deciding cases, guiding every step of her judicial process-the way she read the Constitution and statutes, approached voting issues, and analyzed the demands of the separation of powers, for example. While the substantive contours of 'We the People' have received the most attention, the full sweep of her jurisprudence appears also in the process she used in analyzing all issues. Justice Ginsburg's jurisprudence of 'We the People' became the ordering principle of this book, explaining both the book's title and its topics. Instead of a general survey of Justice Ginsburg's work, the book tells the story of an advocate and a jurist committed to increasing in material ways the bundle of rights we all carry around with us as Americans. As Linda Greenhouse explained in the Foreword, the story begins with Justice Ginsburg's commitment to an America that enables people with diverse experiences to live together in civic harmony. Justice Ginsburg believed that because the American experience involved living in community, the religious expression of some of us had to yield when the expression oppressed others of us in ways endangering that harmony"--

NPR's Rachel Martin talks to author Ibram X. Kendi, who has made a name for himself tackling one of the most sensitive topics in America: racism. His latest book is How to Be an Antiracist.

From PBS American Masters James Baldwin, "The Price of the Ticket" Unfortunately comments became derisive and certain viewers resorted to name calling. Very disappointing. Please enjoy the video anyhow.

The juvenile system forces many children and teens into long confinement in unsafe institutions.

"No one becomes 'not racist,' despite a tendency by Americans to identify themselves that way. We can only strive to be 'antiracist' on a daily basis, to continually rededicate ourselves to the lifelong task of overcoming our country’s racist heritage." Ibram X. Kendi, Further Reading: An Antiracist Reading List, The New York Times, May 29, 2019

"A sitting federal judge's recounting of six cases, to make the argument for revisiting overly punitive sentences"--

There's a newish acronym, BIPOC, that encompasses the victims of US colonization and slavery. But should they be lumped together? And who does that label leave out?

“Intelligence plus character—that is the goal of true education.” – Martin Luther King, Jr. BLL-SIS is honoring Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and his vision for America. We can all look to Dr. King’s…

LIVE: NBC News Special Report: George Floyd funeral in Houston.

A starting point for Penn Carey Law community members interested in resources for self-education on anti-racism.

"Revisits the world of social epidemics first explored in Gladwell's 2000 book "The tipping point," this time taking a closer look at the dark side of social engineering. Twenty-five years after the publication of his groundbreaking first book, Malcolm Gladwell returns with a brand-new volume that reframes the lessons of The Tipping Point in a startling and revealing light. Why is Miami... Miami? What does the heartbreaking fate of the cheetah tell us about the way we raise our children? Why do Ivy League schools care so much about sports? What is the Magic Third, and what does it mean for racial harmony? In this provocative new work, Malcolm Gladwell returns for the first time in twenty-five years to the subject of social epidemics and tipping points, this time with the aim of explaining the dark side of contagious phenomena. Through a series of riveting stories, Gladwell traces the rise of a new and troubling form of social engineering. He takes us to the streets of Los Angeles to meet the world's most successful bank robbers, rediscovers a forgotten television show from the 1970s that changed the world, visits the site of a historic experiment on a tiny cul-de-sac in northern California, and offers an alternate history of two of the biggest epidemics of our day: COVID and the opioid crisis. Revenge of the Tipping Point is Gladwell's most personal book yet. With his characteristic mix of storytelling and social science, he offers a guide to making sense of the contagions of modern world. It's time we took tipping points seriously"--

A moment at last week's Senate Judiciary Hearing on policing reform underscored a persistent and common misunderstanding about the difference between personal and systemic racism. 

"This page outlines various key court cases that deal with racial issues from a legal standpoint. These sites offer an introduction and information about historic precedents and other data that also impact on viewpoints found in relation to decisions made within wider society."

This Special Advance Fact Sheet outlines preliminary findings of the research conducted by the Raza Database Project, which investigates a long-suspected undercount of the number of deaths of Latinos and individuals of color by or while in the custody of police.

New York state tried to limit writings and artistic works from prisoners — illustrating a growing issue across the country.

The 30 days since his death have seen new policies, Confederate statues removed and countless other changes.

The guide is divided into 5 different categories. Each category is designed to give the researcher ideas on how to track down material relating to Angela Davis and her teachings. In the first section Davis gives an interview while in prision in 1972. The full interview can be seen on The Black Power Mixtape, 1967-1975.

Why it's time to enshrine the right to vote in the Constitution Throughout history, too many Americans have been disenfranchised or faced needless barriers to voting. Part of the blame falls on the Constitution, which does not contain an affirmative right to vote. The Supreme Court has made matters worse by failing to protect voting rights and limiting Congress’s ability to do so. The time has come for voters to take action and push for an amendment to the Constitution that would guarantee this right for all.Drawing on troubling stories of state attempts to disenfranchise military voters, women, African Americans, students, former felons, Native Americans, and others, Richard Hasen argues that American democracy can and should do better in assuring that all eligible voters can cast a meaningful vote that will be fairly counted. He shows how a constitutional right to vote can deescalate voting wars between political parties that lead to endless rounds of litigation and undermine voter confidence in elections, and can safeguard democracy against dangerous attempts at election subversion like the one we witnessed in the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election.The path to a constitutional amendment is undoubtedly hard, especially in these polarized times. A Real Right to Vote explains what’s in it for conservatives who have resisted voting reform and reveals how the pursuit of an amendment can yield tangible dividends for democracy long before ratification.

A generation of Black children has been raised on videos of violence against those who look like them, committed by police. How can we help them make sense of these traumatic images?

"The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear the FBI's bid to block a civil rights lawsuit by three Muslim men from California who accused the agency of illegally conducting surveillance on them following the Sept. 11 2001 attacks on the United States."

Common Justice develops and advances solutions to violence that transform the lives of those harmed and foster racial equity without relying on incarceration

A nonprofit news organization covering the U.S. criminal justice system.

"This is the second of four special Black History Month issues of De Novo the newsletter of the Law Library of Louisiana that will be distributed statewide by the Louisiana Supreme Court. Each issue will feature an Unsung Hero whose work though less well-known than others nonetheless contributed to the progress of civil rights in Louisiana"

"The Myth of American Idealism offers a timely and comprehensive introduction to the incisive critiques of U.S. power that have made Noam Chomsky a "global phenomenon," one of the most widely known public intellectuals of all time. Surveying the history of U.S. military and economic activity around the world, Chomsky and his co-author Nathan J. Robinson vividly trace the way the American pursuit of global domination has wrought havoc in country after country--without, ironically, making Americans any safer. And they explore how dominant elites in the United States have pushed self-serving myths about this country's commitment to "spreading democracy," while pursuing a reckless foreign policy that served the interest of few and endangered all too many. Chomsky and Robinson range across the globe, offering penetrating accounts of Washington's relationship with the Global South, its role in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan--all justified with noble stories about humanitarian missions and the benevolent intentions of American policy makers. The same kinds of myths that have led to repeated disastrous wars, they argue, are now driving us closer to wars with Russia and China that imperil humanity's future. Examining nuclear proliferation and climate change, they show how U.S. policies are continuing to exacerbate global threats. For well over half a century, Noam Chomsky has committed himself to exposing governing ideologies and criticizing his country's unchecked use of military power. At once thorough and devastating, urgent and provocative, The Myth of American Idealism offers a highly readable entry to the conclusions he has come to after a lifetime of thought and activism"--