civil rights

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NAACP President Ben Jealous Resigns

Wants to teach, spend more time with family

(Newser) - Benjamin Jealous, the president and CEO of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, announced today that he plans to step down by the end of the year. The Baltimore-based NAACP is the largest US civil rights organization. When Jealous was hired as its president in 2008 at...

Little Civil Rights Pioneer Reunites With US Marshal

Ruby Bridges meets with one of her school escorts, now 91

(Newser) - Civil rights icon Ruby Bridges, who as a 6-year-old helped end public school segregation in the South, was reunited today with one of the federal marshals who escorted her past angry crowds so she could attend a previously all-white school. Bridges, who in 1960 became the first black child to...

Obama: King's Words 'Belong to the Ages'

Thousands honor MLK at Lincoln Memorial

(Newser) - Some excerpts from today's speeches at the Lincoln Memorial honoring the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech, from CNN , the AP , and NBC News .
  • President Obama: "His words belong to the ages, possessing a power and prophecy unmatched in
...

Martin Luther King&#39;s Work Not Yet Done
 Martin Luther King's 
 Work Not Yet Done 
OPINION
Aug 28, 2013 1:50 PM CDT

Martin Luther King's Work Not Yet Done

But we should remember MLK as modern-day founding father: opinions

(Newser) - Fifty years later, tributes to Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech—and reflections on the speech and the man—abound. A sampling:
  • King was a modern-day founding father, "equal to Jefferson, Adams, Madison, and Hamilton," writes Nicholas Burns in the Boston Globe
...

Marchers Honor MLK in DC
 Marchers Honor MLK in DC 
Aug 24, 2013 12:54 PM CDT

Marchers Honor MLK in DC

Rally at Lincoln Memorial marks 50th anniversary of speech

(Newser) - Tens of thousands of marchers kicked off the 50th anniversary commemorations of the March on Washington today, honoring the civil rights progress made since Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech. But they also lamented what they called new attacks on racial and social equality....

Washington Post: 'We Blew It' on MLK's Dream Speech

An editor laments scant coverage 50 years ago

(Newser) - Martin Luther King Jr. gave one of the most famous speeches in the nation's history 50 years ago, but you'd never have known it by picking up the Washington Post the next day. In all its coverage of the civil rights march of Aug. 28, 1963, the words...

Zimmerman Not Getting His Gun Back Yet, After All

Return is on hold pending the Department of Justice's probe

(Newser) - The FBI has thrown the brakes on a plan to return George Zimmerman's gun , asking Florida authorities to hold on to all evidence until it completes its civil rights investigation . "They have an investigation they are conducting," a Sanford police official tells USA Today . "Until that...

Case Against Zimmerman No Piece of Cake for DOJ

Feds would have to prove shooting was racially motivated

(Newser) - Amid protests and a push from the NAACP , the Justice Department is looking into the prosecution of George Zimmerman on criminal civil rights grounds—but that would be a genuinely tough case to win, the AP explains. Says a former US attorney: "They'd have to show not only...

Sharpton: Court Just Killed MLK's Dream

Voting Rights Act decision provokes outcry on left

(Newser) - "They just canceled the dream." That was Al Sharpton's reaction to the Supreme Court's Voting Rights Act decision , which has provoked a full-on outcry from the left, from President Obama on down. Sharpton was perhaps the most vociferous. "Part of, at least half, of what...

Biden Leads 'Bloody Sunday' Civil Rights March

Voting rights fight still going on, he says at Selma re-enactment

(Newser) - Joe Biden vowed to keep up the fight for voting rights as he led a re-enactment of the 1965 "Bloody Sunday" civil rights march in Selma, Ala., yesterday. Biden is the first sitting vice president to take part in the annual march, which commemorates a march where voting rights...

Rosa Parks Statue Unveiled
 Rosa Parks Statue Unveiled 
Feb 27, 2013 2:20 PM CST

Rosa Parks Statue Unveiled

She is first black woman to get full-length statue at Capitol

(Newser) - Rosa Parks made history again today: A full-length statue of the late civil rights icon was unveiled in the US Capitol's Statuary Hall, making her the first black woman to receive such an honor, reports the Washington Post . President Obama and congressional leaders put aside sequester squabbling for the...

College: We're Keeping 'Dixie' in Our Name

Dixie State College trustees approve name unanimously

(Newser) - A college in Utah will keep the word "Dixie" in its name despite signs that the school's history is steeped in racism, USA Today reports. Following an impassioned debate, trustees at Dixie State College voted unanimously yesterday to use the name Dixie State University if the state approves...

Alabama Student Who Defied Segregation Dies

James Hood was one of two to stand up to George Wallace in 1963

(Newser) - One of the first black students who enrolled at the University of Alabama a half-century ago in defiance of racial segregation has died. James Hood of Gadsden was 70. Then-Alabama Gov. George Wallace made his infamous "stand in the schoolhouse door" in a failed effort to prevent Hood and...

10 Misleading Words to Be Wiped From MLK Memorial

At a cost of as much as $900K

(Newser) - The truncated quote on the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial that made the civil rights leader sound like, in Maya Angelou's words, " an arrogant twit ," will be removed. Officials initially said that the quote—"I was a drum major for justice, peace, and righteousness"—would...

19 More Graves Found at Notorious Florida School

All of them were in area segregated for blacks

(Newser) - Researchers have discovered 19 more grave shafts at an infamous Florida reform school where boys—most of them black—suffered and sometimes died under brutal conditions, NBC News reports. That brings the total to at least 50 at The Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys in Marianna, and all of...

Supreme Court to Review Landmark Voting Law

Court will hear challenge to 1965's Voting Rights Act

(Newser) - One of the signature laws from the civil rights era may be significantly weaker at the end of this Supreme Court term. The justices decided yesterday to hear a challenge to a key component of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, the law designed to ensure that minorities don't face...

Supremes Start Monday With Focus on Civil Rights

Challenge to college affirmative action rules is on the docket

(Newser) - The new Supreme Court term starts Monday, and one of the most important cases the court hears could be the one brought by a white woman against the University of Texas . Abigail Fisher says she was rejected while minority students with lesser academic qualifications were admitted, the Washington Post reports....

Feds: We're Taking Sheriff Joe to Court

Negotiations fall apart in civil rights case, as Arpaio refuses monitor

(Newser) - The Justice Department is through negotiating with the self-proclaimed toughest sheriff in America. Authorities announced yesterday that they will sue Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio for alleged civil rights violations, the AP reports. The department had been trying to work out an agreement with Arpaio in which he'd train his...

Trayvon Lawyers Draw On 'Bootcamp Playbook'

Benjamin Crump: 'The jury is the American people'

(Newser) - The lawyers fighting Trayvon Martin's case are seeking more than justice in a court of law. Attorneys at the black-owned law firm of Parks & Crump took their case to the public right away, contacting media and Al Sharpton , pushing for the release of 911 tapes, and helping to...

Trayvon Martin Shooting to Get 2nd Look by DOJ, FBI

Family, critics say shooter George Zimmerman is being protected

(Newser) - Almost a month after the killing of unarmed teen Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Florida, the FBI, the Department of Justice, and Florida's Department of Law Enforcement have agreed to get involved, the Miami Herald reports. The agencies will probe the case amid accusations from the teen's family and...

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