Portside

It is true that the data show the number of families receiving cash assistance fell from 12.3 million in 1996 to current levels of 4.1 million as reported by The New York Times. But it is also true that child poverty rates for black children remain stubbornly high in the U.S.

(Hint: It’s less about income and more about skin color.) This infographic is part of a special report. Banking on Justice: The Bankers Doing Civil Rights Work in the Mississippi Delta.

A thick strand in the history of U.S. policing is rooted back in the slave patrols of the 19th century.

Racial and ethnic differences in wealth show extreme vulnerability of some nonwhite households in Los Angeles. The authors estimate that the typical U.S.-born black or Mexican family has just 1 percent of the wealth of a typical white family in Los Angeles -- or one cent for every dollar of wealth held by the average white family in the metro area. Koreans hold 7 cents and Vietnamese possess 17 cents for every dollar of wealth owned by comparable white families.

Warren Buffet owns the company that makes the most mobile home loans to Black borrowers in the country. And he’s stripping them of their hard-earned money.

As the first week of Missouri’s 2016 legislative session comes to a close, it is evident that racial justice is not a priority for Jefferson City’s GOP leaders, and that majority leaders in Missouri will repress meaningful transformations at a policy level.

Based on five years of ethnography, archival research, census data analysis, and interviews, Police, Power, and the Production of Racial Boundaries reveals how the LAPD, city prosecutors, and business owners struggled to control who should be considered “dangerous” and how they should be policed in Los Angeles.

Alabama passed a strict voter-ID law and then closed 31 DMV offices in the state.

Charlie Sifford, the man characterized as the Jackie Robinson of golf for his heroic efforts to break the racial barrier in this country's most segregated sport, died at 92 on February 3rd. Sifford rose from being a caddy in his home state of North Carolina to become the first Black player to gain membership in the Professional Golfers Association of America (PGA), which wasn't forced to drop its "Caucasians only" clause until 1961.

“To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose.” This is the season and time when we should be resolved to continue seeking justice together and not let those with blind biases distract, diminish, or divide us. The way to honor those who defend our liberties with their lives—as did my father and grandfather—is not to curtail liberty, but to exercise it fully in pursuit of a just and peaceful society.