Social Movements & the Law

We asked all state systems for book policies and ban lists, then created a database for you.

"A brutal killing, an all-out manhunt, and a riveting account of the first murder trial in U.S. history--set in the 1600s in colonial New England against the backdrop of the Pequot War (between the Pequot tribe and the colonists of Massachusetts Bay), an explosive trial whose outcome changed the course of history, ended a two-year war, and brought about a peace that allowed the colonies to become a full-blown nation. The year: 1638. The setting: Providence, Plymouth Colony. A young Nipmuc tribesman, returning home from trading beaver pelts, is fatally stabbed in a robbery in the woods near Plymouth Colony, by a white runaway servant and fellow rogues. The young tribesman, fighting for his life, is able, with his final breaths, to reveal the details of the attack to Providence's governor, Roger Williams. A frantic manhunt by the fledgling government of Plymouth ensues, followed by the convening of the first trial, with Plymouth's governor Thomas Prence presiding as judge. The jury: local settlers (white) whose allegiance seems more likely to be with the accused than with the murdered (a native) . . . Tobey Pearl, piecing together a fascinating narrative through original research and first-rate detective work, re-creates in detail the full and startling, pivotal moment in pre-revolutionary America, as she examines the evolution of our nascent civil liberties and the role of the jury as a safeguard against injustice"--

UCLA law professor Joanna Schwartz talks about the legal protections — including qualified immunity and no-knock warrants — that have protected officers from the repercussions of abuse. Her book is Shielded.Also, David Bianculli reviews Mel Brooks' History of the World Part II on Hulu.

Black women are disproportionately victims of police brutality, but activists say they've been left behind and erased from the mainstream fight against police violence. Subscribe to HuffPost today: http://goo.gl/xW6HG Support our work: https://www.huffpost.com/subscribe Read: https://www.huffpost.com/ Like: https://www.facebook.com/HuffPost Follow: https://twitter.com/huffpost

How can we help students understand George Floyd's death in the context of institutionalized racism?

"Police officers are given wide latitude to stop and detain suspects since they're entrusted with the enforcement power of the law. When an officer orders you to "freeze" or submit to a search it's generally in your best interests to do so. But this doesn't mean they're above the law as police misconduct -- whether it's blatant racial profiling or the use of excessive force -- is strictly illegal. If an Arizona officer has violated your civil rights you may want to pursue a claim in civil court. Police misconduct runs the gamut from unlawful search and seizure (in violation of the Fourth Amendment) to planting false evidence on a suspect. And while police are protected by "qualified immunity" as long as their actions don't violate specific individual rights you have legal options in the event they do in fact violate your rights."

Incarcerated people have high legal information needs, covering everything from criminal appeals to probate law. I have learned this from working with the Law Library Service to Prisoners (LLSP) pr…

The Marshall Project explains its decision to offer free news to incarcerated people on tablets that otherwise charge users.

"This work identifies our two-party, comparatively non-representative form of democracy as the main culprit of why American politics are so dysfunctional-and shows us how to fix it"--

Louisville’s Metro Council has voted to ban no-knock warrants. In a unanimous vote Thursday evening, council approved “Breonna’s Law,” named after Breonna Taylor, a Black woman killed by Louisville po

Sisters of the late Sandra Bland, Sharon Cooper, Shavon Bland, Joy Phillips, Shante Needham, and lawyer Cannon Lambert sat down with Ebro in the Morning to remember the late Sandra Bland who passed away while in jail in 2015 causing tons of controversy due to its cause and coverup, and speak about the entire case overall. Say Her Name: The Life and Death Of Sandra Bland airs on HBO Monday, December 3. #HOT97 SUBSCRIBE: http://bit.ly/HOT97Subscribe More @ http://www.hot97.com or the HOT 97 App: http://bit.ly/HOT97APPWORLDWIDE INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/hot97 TWITTER: https://twitter.com/HOT97 FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/HOT97OFFICIAL

Anti-Racist Resources This is a list of resources to begin your anti-racist work. This list will be continously updated. Name of Resource,Type of Resource,Link,Notes Ella Baker and the Black Freedom Movement: Mentoring a New Generation of Activists,Article,

Filed in federal court primarily in regards to the excessive force and use of tear gas in the midst of a global pandemic.

As the pandemic worsened inside federal prisons, officials granted fewer releases.

"Focusing on the intimate relations that develop between plants and humans in the northern rural region of El Salvador, this book explores the ways in which more-than-human intimacies travel away from and return to the milpa through human networks. The chapters present innovative methodological and conceptual contributions to the study of relationships that form between plants and people"--

Two hundred fifty years of slavery. Ninety years of Jim Crow. Sixty years of separate but equal. Thirty-five years of racist housing policy. Until we reckon with our compounding moral debts, America w

In honor of the nation-wide #SayHerName Week of Action (June 11th-17th), AAPF has joined BYP 100 and numerous racial justice and gender justice organizations in uplifting the stories of Black women, girls and femmes who have been victimized by state violence, and demanding justice for them and their families. This video, the first in a series of three, lifts up the voices of mothers who have lost their daughters to police violence. The #SayHerName Mothers Network was first officially convened by AAPF in November 2016, a year and a half after many of the mothers joined us in New York City to launch the Say Her Name Report and attend the first ever #SayHerName Vigil in Union Square. Since then, the #SayHerName Mothers Network has joined together on a number of occasions, marching at the Women’s March on Washington, lobbying for police reform on Capitol Hill, and joining together for several focus groups and planning sessions to strategize around the initiative and to assess the needs of new family members who’ve lost their daughters to police violence. This video is dedicated to Vicky Coles-McAdory, aunty-mama of India Beaty and one of the original members of the #SayHerName Family Network, who tragically died of a stroke last September. Learn more about the campaign by visiting our website (aapf.org) and social media pages (@aapolicyforum). #SayHerName

"Colorado passed a sweeping police reform bill [...] among other reforms bans chokeholds and makes officers personally liable if they are found guilty of violating a person's civil rights." Li Cohen CBS News

In this report, Perilous Chronicle analyzes the first 90 days of prisoner resistance to COVID-19, beginning in March 2020. It describes the context for the wave of unrest, describes major events from this period, and draws conclusions based on the data collected for each event.

"An inside look at how police officers are trained to perpetuate state violence. Michael Brown. Philando Castile. George Floyd. Breonna Taylor. As the names of those killed by the police became cemented into public memory, the American public took to the streets in unprecedented numbers to mourn, organize, and demand changes to the current system of policing. In response, police departments across the country committed themselves to change, pledging to hire more women and people of color, incorporate diversity training, and instruct officers to verbally de-escalate interactions with the public. These reform efforts tend to rely on a "bad apple" argument, focusing the nature and scope of the problem on the behavior of specific individuals and rarely considering the broader organizational process that determines who is allowed to patrol the public and how they learn to do their jobs. In Before the Badge, Samantha J. Simon provides a firsthand look into how police officers are selected and trained, describing every stage of the process, including recruitment, classroom instruction, and tactical training. Simon spent a year at police academies participating in the training alongside cadets, giving her a visceral, hands-on understanding of how police training operates. Using rich and detailed examples, she reveals that the process does more than test a cadet's physical or intellectual abilities. Instead, it socializes cadets into a system of state violence. As training progresses, cadets are expected to see themselves as warriors and to view Black and Latino/a members of the public as their enemies. Cadets who cannot or will not uphold this approach end up washing out. In Before the Badge, Simon explains how this training creates a context in which patterns of police violence persist and implores readers to re-envision the future of policing in the United States"--Provided by publisher.

Invisible No More: Racial Profiling and Police Brutality Against Women and LGBTQ People of Color, full-length lecture by Andrea Ritchie, author of Invisible No More: Police Violence Against Black Women and Women of Color, on racial profiling and police violence against Black women. Recorded at Barnard College in May 2016.

"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."

Debtors’ prison might sound arcane. But this comic explains how it exists under a certain guise in America today.

"Imagine a world without bias. A world where all human beings can truly be just as they are and unleash their full potential. Take a moment to imagine how you feel in such a world--not what you think about it, or whether you believe it's possible, but how you feel. This is the proposition that opens Breaking Bias. It's your invitation to embark on a journey that will radically change your experience and show you how you, in turn, can help reshape our world."--Publisher's website.

Braver Angels Director of Debates April Lawson leads a public debate on police reform on June 19, 2020. Participants argued for and against the following resolution: "America's local governments should defund police departments and support alternative programs for public safety."

"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."

"This book makes explicit the racial, ethnic, and gendered forms of environmental injustice that culminate from the collective, intersecting, and multi-scaler consequences of a seemingly anonymous authoritarian state willing to maintain white supremacy at any cost, including poisoning an entire city and shutting off water to thousands of people"--

DemocracyNow.org - We spend the hour looking at the bloody struggle to obtain — and protect — voting rights in the U.S. with the civil rights icon, now 13-term Georgia Congressmember, John Lewis. During the 1960s, Rep. Lewis was arrested more than 40 times and beaten almost to death as he served as chair of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, marched side-by-side with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., helped organize the Freedom Rides, campaigned for Robert Kennedy's presidential bid, and spoke at the 1963 March on Washington. He has just written a new memoir looking back on his more than fifty years of political involvement, "Across That Bridge: Life Lessons and a Vision for Change." Having risked his life marching for the right of all Americans to vote, Lewis reflects on the ongoing struggle for voting rights today, wherein 16 states have passed restrictive voting laws that critics say target people of color. "It's so important for people to understand, to know that people suffered, struggled," Lewis says. "Some people bled and some died for the right to participate. The vote is the most powerful nonviolent tool that we have in a democratic society. It's precious; it's almost sacred. We have to use it — if not, we will lose it." Watch the complete 1-hour interview with Rep. John Lewis: http://www.democracynow.org/2012/7/10/civil_rights_icon_rep_john_lewis To watch the complete weekday independent news hour, read the transcript, download the podcast, search our vast archive, or to find more information about Democracy Now! and Amy Goodman, visit http://www.democracynow.org/ FOLLOW DEMOCRACY NOW! ONLINE: Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/democracynow Twitter: @democracynow Subscribe on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/democracynow Listen on SoundCloud: http://www.soundcloud.com/democracy-now Daily Email News Digest: http://www.democracynow.org/subscribe Please consider supporting independent media by making a donation to Democracy Now! today, visit http://www.democracynow.org/donate/YT