#civil-rights

#civil-rights

experienced all of Chicago from the deep poverty to the striving middle-class Black Chicago,

In a year marked by escalating attacks on transgender people, the Trump administration has seemed to outdo its own cruelty at every turn. While the administration has led a series of attempts to curtail trans people's rights, recognition, and safety, neither Congress nor the Supreme Court seem willing to provide a meaningful check on the administration's brazen targeting of trans people and other demonized communities.

The emotional parents of a Queens man who was shot and killed in front of them by police officers early on Sunday morning challenged the NYPD's narrative of the deadly encounter on Monday. Kevin Fray and Sheanette Dunbar, the parents of Chez Fray, joined civil rights leader Rev. Kevin McCall outside of the 101st Precinct stationhouse in Far Rockaway on the afternoon of Dec. 22. Dunbar clung to McCall and howled in pain, Fray gritted his teeth and sobbed uncontrollably.

This morning on the Winter Solstice, our mother, grandmother, and great grandmother, Betty Reid Soskin, passed away peacefully at her home in Richmond, CA at 104 years old. She was attended by family. She led a fully packed life and was ready to leave. We understand the public nature of Betty's life, however we ask that you please respect the family's privacy at this time..

When I learn that an acquaintance supports stripping my rights away, I distance myself from them. Because of this, I've received some comments like, It's such a shame that you can't even be friends with me because we disagree on politics.

On Tuesday morning, a cohort of Democratic lawmakers reintroduced the Artificial Intelligence Civil Rights Act, a bill that would establish protections for individual civil rights when someone's personal data is processed by algorithms for a diverse range of consequential life decisions. Spearheaded by Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., along with Sens. Cory Booker, D-N.J., and Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Reps. Yvette Clarke, D-N.Y., and Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., the AI Civil Right Act's comes as Markey asserts tech companies are lobbying to include a recently defeated moratorium on AI regulations at the state level in this year's National Defense Authorization Act.

"Video evidence ultimately disproved this," said Ellis. "Defendant Bovino admitted that he lied," she said.

Ellis began Thursday's hearing by describing Chicago as a vibrant place and reading poet Carl Sandburg's famous poem about the city. Ellis said it is simply untrue that the Chicago area is a violent place of rioters. I don't find defendants' version of events credible, Ellis said. She described protesters and advocates facing teargas, having guns pointed at them and being thrown to the ground, saying that would cause a reasonable person to think twice about exercising their fundamental rights.

Michael Mangan, who once led the Lawrence Police Department's Special Operations division, was indicted Tuesday on two counts of deprivation of rights under color of law and two counts of false report, according to the indictment. The accusations stem from a 2023 incident in which Mangan allegedly attacked Sodiq Amusat, 29, as he was being booked. Amusat filed a civil rights lawsuit following the alleged assault, which was captured on a surveillance video recording, according to the complaint filed in federal court.

On a sunny afternoon in Harlem, judges, political figures and community organizers gathered to present the late Franklin H. Williams with a gift for his 108th birthday: the dedication of a street corner just outside the housing complex where he spent much of his life one built in response to segregation he'd help to dismantle in his storied career as a civil rights attorney and diplomat.

In 1707, the British Parliament met for the first time after the Treaty of Union dissolved both the Parliaments of England and Scotland and created a new Kingdom of Great Britain. The Parliament of Great Britain eventually became the Parliament of the United Kingdom. In 1915, an estimated 25,000 women marched in New York City demanding the right to vote throughout the United States.

Democracy flourishes when Black Americans advance. The evidence is clear: birthright citizenship, constitutional due process, anti-discrimination laws from education to housing to employment and equitable small business investments, are all byproducts of the systemic corrections known today as DEI. Yet, in recent years, DEI has been used as a smokescreen by cynical politicians and activists to roll back progress and consolidate power.

Before the ruling was issued, the layoffs had wiped out the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services, including its Office of Special Education Programs, which ensures children with disabilities receive a free, quality education under federal law and oversees around $16 billion in special education funding. Nearly 500 education department employees were let go, including more than 100 staffers who worked in the special education division.

The heart that beats in my chest today is the same one that quickened when, at 11 years old, I stood with my father along Union Avenue waiting to catch a glimpse of John F. Kennedy-the young senator from Massachusetts running for president. The photograph I snapped that day-now framed on my office wall in Washington-isn't sharp, but the moment was. It captured something lasting: a call to public service that has guided me ever since.

Border patrol officers have become ubiquitous footsoldiers in Donald Trump's mass deportation plan, and lawyers and human rights advocates worry that the agency is expanding its aggressive tactics into cities far from its conventional range. Led by Gregory Bovino, a particularly hardline Customs and Border Protection (CBP) sector chief from southern California, border patrol agents have become a daily presence in several major cities across the US.

"It was about faith in action," Thompson, who is now the church's senior pastor, told The Oaklandside. "It wasn't just about belief, it wasn't just about church attendance, but that to be a Christian meant you ought to be doing something to make the world better."

"For decades, the guiding tenet for those working at the department was to do the right thing, in the right way, for the right reasons. Many believe that's no longer possible," Stacey Young, executive director and founder of Justice Connection, which organized the letter, said in a news release on Monday. "They're being asked to put loyalty to the President over the Constitution, the rule of law, and their professional ethical obligations," she said. "We're seeing the erosion of the Justice Department's fabric and integrity at an alarming pace. Our democratic system cannot survive without the primary institution that enforces the law."