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.
The Michigan case, Judge Sonia Sotomayor explained, is simply the latest example of an old and familiar abuse of the Constitution. The white majority used its power to change the rules in the middle of the game and deprive racial minorities of a fair shot at acquiring their just political rights.
Republicans voted against his approval as part of a broader anti-civil rights agenda, but the 7 Democrats who joined them ought to be mortified by their own cowardice.
Though the unions held themselves up as civil rights advocates, white workers often saw their black counterparts as a threat because they competed for the same jobs. In response, black workers formed coalitions to change unions from within. The Coalition of Black Trade Unionists, for example, was founded in 1972. One union stood out when it came to opportunity and access for black workers: the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters with its significant black membership.
Ellen Page at Time to Thrive. Flashmob: Ravel's Bolero. Truthful Tuesdays in South Carolina. 'Ew!' with Jimmy Fallon, Will Ferrell & First Lady Michelle Obama. Carolina Slim -- Every Day I Have the Blues.
Michael Sam and the NFL. Language and Human Nature. Moral March on Raleigh. Are We Descended from Martians? Pete Seeger Speaks.
The Oklahoma legislature may consider a bill to end government licensing of marriage entirely. The bill, which is part of a broader strategy to avoid same-sex unions throughout the state, calls to mind efforts by lawmakers in the 1950s to undermine federally-mandated desegregation by shutting down public schools in the American South.
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