COINTELPRO, short of the FBI’s Counterintelligence Program, was created by former director J. Edgar Hoover as a means to spy on and disrupt anti-American interests in the nation. The program’s invasive reach was ended on this day in 1976 after the release of the so-called “Levi Guidelines” from former Attorney General Edward H. Levi. Levi, […]
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — Black people who celebrate the civil rights movement and white people who commemorate the Civil War are suddenly finding themselves fighting on the same side in historic Selma, Alabama: against City Hall. Both groups say the city is squeezing them with demands for thousands of dollars in up-front payments to stage […]
Autherine Lucy became the first Black student to desegregate the University of Alabama on this day in 1956 despite violent threats from rioting white mobs. Lucy, who was ultimately expelled from the school on a weak technicality, re-entered the school in the ’80’s and completed her master’s degree. Autherine Juanita Lucy was born October 5, […]
This morning at CNN.com, the headline read “Democrats Have No Power.” And it’s almost true. You’ve heard me say it before, Republicans now control the House, the Senate, and the Presidency. Democrats are seemingly unable to stop even one of Donald Trump’s cabinet nominees from being confirmed. It appears conservatives will soon control the Supreme […]
Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is considered a civil rights icon now. He has a monument in Washington, D.C., a federal holiday that we celebrate this week and is revered as a man who sought to bring a divided nation together. He is oft-quoted as the antithesis of the Black Lives Matter movement which […]
Senator Jeff Sessions alleges he was a proponent of desegregation, but upon review of Alabama's legal database, no proof was found.
In 1955, the death of Emmett Till, a 14-year-old African-American teenager who was lynched after allegedly flirting with a White woman in rural Mississippi, sparked controversy across America. The two White men responsible for brutally murdering Till were let off by an all-White jury. The case brought attention to how racism is intertwined with America’s […]
The Education Department accesses civil rights gains under President Obama. Activists are preparing for rollbacks under Trump's administration.
New York firefighter Jason Stokes pleaded not guilty to arson charges earlier this week after being charged with setting fire to his own home back in August.
Harry S. Truman, the 33rd President of the United States, addressed the NAACP on this day in 1947. President Truman was the first sitting president to address the organization and is viewed as the nation’s first civil rights president. Truman’s speech to the NAACP was aired publicly on radio and took place at the Lincoln […]
The Department of Justice and North Carolina filed lawsuits against each other over the so-called "bathroom bill." North Carolina denies that the measure violates the civil rights of transgender people.
WASHINGTON (AP) — In suing the state where she was born and raised for discriminating against transgender people, Attorney General Loretta Lynch invoked the defining civil rights struggles of the last century. And she made clear that the federal government sees its dispute with North Carolina as about far more than bathrooms and showers. Lynch, […]
