Civil rights Archives

Civil rights

Empty Suits

Defamation law and the price of dissent

A Matter of Degrees

America’s long struggle with affirmative action

Confirmation B.S.

From a quiz drafted by the police department of Long Beach, California, and used as part of a training presentation. The quiz was cited in a report by the A.C.L.U.…

Southern Harm

by William Faulkner,

We are faced with two apparently irreconcilable facts in the South: the one being the decree of our national government that there be absolute equality in education among all citizens,…

The Immunity Doctrine

by Julia Harte,

Can officials be held liable for the suffering they inflict?

Travel Clearances

From descriptions of incidents in which U.S. and U.K. airlines removed Muslims or passengers who were perceived to be Muslim from their flights.

Tyranny of the Minority

by Rebecca Solnit,

Think of our democracy as a house we built in 1776, big enough only for Christian, property-owning white men. Over the next two centuries, various groups struggled to make it…

Black Like Who?

by Calvin Baker,

How Obama negotiated America’s racial tightrope

S.O.B. Story

From a complaint filed in an Illinois circuit court last year by Robert Rialmo, a Chicago police officer, against the family of Quintonio LeGrier, a nineteen-year-old black man who was…

Over the River

by Richard Manning,

Returning home to Flint

Coming Apart