Portside

Representatives Keith Ellison and John Lewis plan to introduce a bill Wednesday that would make labor organizing a basic freedom no different than freedom from racial discrimination. The legislation would amend the National Labor Relations Act to include protections found under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act to include labor organizing as a fundamental right.

Net Corp Buyoffs; Tennessee sticks it to Comcast; Canvas fingerprinting; How Israel does spin; Amazon eats the world; Margot Adler

Ruby and Ossie were extraordinarily generous and bold, lending their celebrity to a host of leftist causes and holding affiliations with a variety of groups including some associated with the demonized CP. They fought Joe McCarthy's anti-communist witch-hunt and supported its victims, organized to restore Paul Robeson's passport, rallied for the Rosenbergs, and Che Guevara. While the media celebrates her life as an actress, they don't acknowledge the obstacles she faced.

Bob Moses remembers; Southerners reflect; Passing the Civil Rights Act of 1964; Voter suppression now; The Right vs. democracy; Throwback: How Mississippi Burning defamed the movement

50 years after the murder of my brother, Andrew Goodman, voter rights still threatened.

You have to learn how to take the steps that will earn you the right to organize in the 21st century.

Actor, author, activist Ruby Dee took her final bow at home in New Rochelle, New York on June 11, 2014. She was a gifted and talented woman who joined with her late husband, Ossie Davis, to produce and present some of the most enjoyable and inspirational stage productions and movies of the last half century.

Japanese-American activist and Malcolm X Ally, Yuri Kochiyama, has died at the age of 93. She spent two years in an internment camp and helped win reparations for Japanese-Americans. She was with Malcolm X when he was assassinated. She inspired generations. Tributes from 18 Million Rising and the Asian American Studies Center at UCLA; links to some of her writings and interviews.

Freedom Summer 50th is a five-day convening to learn from the past, evaluate our present, and strategize for the future. The international conference and youth congress will be held June 25th - 29th, 2014 in Jackson, Mississippi on the campus of Tougaloo College. Work sessions will examine each issue area and explore its context in the present-day struggle for justice not only in Mississippi, but globally.

Dr. Vincent G. Harding, Civil Rights pioneer, colleague, advisor and speechwriter for Dr. Martin Luther King, died this week at age 82. He drafted King's anti-Vietnam War speech, "Breaking the Silence". As people like King and Rosa Parks became icons, Harding insisted that America could not celebrate their lives without continuing to devote ourselves to the work they and many others had done.