59 h. ago Government moves to drop Sheetz discrimination case as Trump targets key civil rights tool

Federal authorities are moving to drop a racial discrimination lawsuit against the Sheetz convenience store chain, part of a broader effort by the Trump administration to halt the use of a key tool for enforcing the country’s civil rights laws

Politics

3 d. ago Federal judge hints at early release of MLK Jr assassination files following Trump’s order

The official narrative surrounding the killing of the civil rights icon has long been disputed by his family, inspiring decades of conspiracy theories speculating about what really happened on April 4, 1968

Politics

3 d. ago US supreme court sides with heterosexual woman in ‘reverse discrimination’ case

Judges rule 9-0 in case where Marlean Ames argued she was denied a promotion because she is heterosexualUS politics live – latest updatesThe US supreme court made it easier on Thursday for people from majority backgrounds such as white or straight individuals to pursue claims alleging workplace “reverse discrimination”, reviving the case of an Ohio woman who claimed that she did not get a promotion at a state agency because she is heterosexual.The justices, in a 9-0 ruling, threw out a lower court‘s decision rejecting a civil rights lawsuit by the plaintiff, Marlean Ames, against her employer, Ohio’s department of youth services. Continue reading...

Events

3 d. ago The right is breaking ranks over Trump and his tariffs | Sidney Blumenthal

A trade court ruling is exposing the civil war on the right, as key legal establishment figures oppose the presidentDonald Trump’s trade war has become his quagmire: legal, economic and political. On 28 May, the court of international trade ruled his tariffs exceeded his constitutional authority. Point by point, the decision decimated Trump’s arguments as flimsy and false, implicitly castigated the Republican Congress for abdicating its constitutional responsibility, and reminded other courts, not least the supreme court, of the judicial branch’s obligation to exercise its authority regardless of the blustering of the executive and the fecklessness of the legislative branches.Trump’s tariffs, along with his withdrawal of active support for Ukraine and passivity toward his strongman father figure Vladimir Putin, have broken the western alliance, forcing the west to make its own arrangements with China, and cementing the idea for a generation to come that the United States is an untru...

Politics

3 d. ago Trump’s tariffs have become his Vietnam – and the right is breaking ranks | Sidney Blumenthal

A trade court ruling is exposing the civil war on the right, as key legal establishment figures oppose the presidentDonald Trump’s trade war has become his quagmire: legal, economic and political. On 28 May, the court of international trade ruled his tariffs exceeded his constitutional authority. Point by point, the decision decimated Trump’s arguments as flimsy and false, implicitly castigated the Republican Congress for abdicating its constitutional responsibility, and reminded other courts, not least the supreme court, of the judicial branch’s obligation to exercise its authority regardless of the blustering of the executive and the fecklessness of the legislative branches.Trump’s tariffs, along with his withdrawal of active support for Ukraine and passivity toward his strongman father figure Vladimir Putin, have broken the western alliance, forcing the west to make its own arrangements with China, and cementing the idea for a generation to come that the United States is an untru...

Politics

4 d. ago Judge weighs government's request to unseal records of FBI’s surveillance of Martin Luther King Jr.

A federal judge is weighing a request from the Trump administration to unseal records of the FBI’s surveillance of Martin Luther King Jr. — files that the civil rights leader’s relatives want to keep under wraps in the national archives

Events

4 d. ago ‘These guys are idiots’: Sean Penn and Dustin Lance Black call out government’s Harvey Milk erasure

Team behind Oscar-winning biopic of the groundbreaking gay politician hits back at decision to remove his nameSean Penn, the Oscar-winning actor of the 2008 Harvey Milk biopic Milk and Milk writer Dustin Lance Black have spoken out against US defense secretary Pete Hegseth’s decision to remove the gay rights icon’s name from a navy ship.“This is yet another move to distract and to fuel the culture wars that create division,” Black told the Hollywood Reporter in a phone call on Wednesday. “It’s meant to get us to react in ways that are self-centered so that we are further distanced from our brothers and sisters in equally important civil rights fights in this country. It’s divide and conquer.” Continue reading...

Politics

5 d. ago ‘Hard for me to understand’: grappling with the Charlottesville tragedy eight years on

Author and Charlottesville native Deborah Baker revisits the devastating events of 2017 and examines how they speak to a difficult pastDeborah Baker’s new book, Charlottesville, is about her home town in Virginia, where in summer 2017 white supremacists marched, violence erupted and a counter-protester was murdered. In dizzying detail, Baker charts and reports the chaos. In interludes, she examines the dark history of a city long linked to racist oppression, from the days of Thomas Jefferson, Robert E Lee and slavery to the rise of the Ku Klux Klan and resistance to civil rights reform.Putting it all together was a new challenge for a writer whose books include In Extremis, a biography of the 20th-century poet Laura Riding, and A Blue Hand: The Beats in India. Continue reading...

Politics

9 d. ago Hong Kong releases second group of democrats jailed for four years in national security trial

Among those freed was long-time political and LGBTQ activist Jimmy Sham, who also led one of Hong Kong’s largest pro-democracy groupsFour people jailed in the landmark national security trial of the “Hong Kong 47”, the pro-democracy figures accused of conspiracy to commit subversion, were freed on Friday after more than four years behind bars, the second group to be released in a month.Among those freed was longtime political and LGBTQ activist Jimmy Sham, who also led one of Hong Kong’s largest pro-democracy groups, the Civil Human Rights Front, which disbanded in 2021. Continue reading...

Events

1 week ago Foundations donate $1.5M to help restore historic Black church in Memphis gutted by arson

Several foundations have donated $1.5 million to help rebuild after arson gutted a historic Black church that played an important role in the civil rights movement

Politics

2 w. ago AP PHOTOS: Thousands gather to mark the fifth anniversary of George Floyd’s murder

Police reform and civil-rights activists joined thousands of people on Sunday to mark the fifth anniversary of George Floyd’s murder and decry the Trump administration for actions they say set their efforts back decades.

Events

2 w. ago They were shot by police at the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests. ‘I came home a different person’

Blinded, beaten or jailed, some protesters are still recovering physically and financially from speaking outFive years ago, on 25 May 2020, George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man living in Minneapolis, Minnesota, was murdered by Derek Chauvin, a white police officer. During an attempted arrest, Chauvin kneeled on Floyd’s neck for more than nine minutes, cutting off his oxygen supply. The gruesome killing was captured on video.Floyd’s murder sparked global outcry, launching the largest protests seen in the US since the civil rights movement. During the summer of 2020, upwards of 26 million people protested nationwide to condemn police brutality and demand racial justice. Rallies also spread across the globe, with some 93 countries and territories participating in the uprisings. Continue reading...

Society

2 w. ago Trump administration says Columbia violated civil rights of Jewish students

The Trump administration is accusing Columbia University of violating the civil rights of Jewish students by “acting with deliberate indifference” toward what it describes as rampant antisemitism on campus

Politics

2 w. ago Trump stops civil rights investigations of police in Minneapolis, Louisville and other communities

Justice Department pulls lawsuits against police departments in Louisville and Minneapolis, among others

Events

2 w. ago Trump stops civil rights investigations into local police departments

Justice Department pulls lawsuits against police departments in Louisville and Minneapolis, among others

Events

2 w. ago Justice Department investigates Chicago's hiring practices after mayor touts Black hires

The U.S. Department of Justice has opened a civil rights investigation into hiring practices at the city of Chicago in response to comments made by Mayor Brandon Johnson at a church Sunday, praising the number of and naming Black people in top positions in his administration

Events

2 w. ago ‘He gave us a sense of pride’: Rev Al Sharpton on Malcolm X’s 100th birthday

Veteran activist reflects on Malcolm’s legacy and decades of progress now rolled back by Trump and ‘white supremacy on steroids’When African Americans protested police brutality in New York, they were portrayed as rioters, Malcolm X told an audience at the London School of Economics. When shop windows were smashed in the Black community, he said, the press gave the impression that “hoodlums, vagrants, criminals” wanted to break in and steal merchandise.“But this is wrong,” Malcolm contended. “In America the Black community in which we live is not owned by us. The landlord is white. The merchant is white. In fact, the entire economy of the Black community in the states is controlled by someone who doesn’t even live there And these are the people who suck the economic blood of our community.” Continue reading...

Politics

3 w. ago Senior faith leaders urge Starmer to tone down migration rhetoric

Exclusive: Christian, Muslim and Jewish representatives write to prime minister after ‘island of strangers’ speechUK politics live – latest updatesMore than a dozen bishops and other senior Christian, Muslim and Jewish faith leaders have written to the prime minister after his “island of strangers” speech, urging him to use a more “compassionate narrative” about migrants.The letter was sent to Keir Starmer after his speech on Monday, which preceded the publication of the government’s immigration white paper that has been widely criticised by migrant rights organisations and civil society groups. Continue reading...

Politics

3 w. ago The Afterlife of Malcolm X: how the civil rights icon influenced America

In the year in which the groundbreaking activist would have turned 100, a new book looks at the enduring impact of his words and how they resonate todayThe Afterlife of Malcolm X is a new book about the great Black leader who was born Malcolm Little in Omaha, Nebraska, 100 years ago; who in the 1950s converted to Islam and dropped his “slave name”; who rose to fame as the militant voice of the civil rights era; and who was assassinated in New York in 1965, aged just 39.The book is not a biography. As the author, Mark Whitaker, puts it, his book tells “the story of the story of Malcolm, the story that really made him the figure he is today, even more so than what he accomplished while he was living. Continue reading...

Politics

3 w. ago Deaf President Now: The new documentary shedding light on ‘forgotten’ history of deaf civil rights movement

Thirty-seven years after protests at Gallaudet University, an innovative new film thrusts hearing audiences into the deaf experience

Politics