A few weeks have passed since a federal appeals court decided that a state law that disenfranchised inmates in Washington was racially discriminatory and prohibited by the Voting Rights Act.
This major court decision is far too significant to allow it to go unnoticed on the Just Democracy Blog. Hopefully, this post can prompt some meaningful [...]

By Andrew Williams
Ousted Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich’s recent comments in Esquire magazine that he’s “blacker than Barack Obama” demonstrates an utter misconception of what it means to be Black. Although that statement was the opinion of a completely discredited politician, the fact that the “blacker” statement seemed like a reasonable thing to say in a [...]

The fact that people are dying for lack of water and food and basic medical supplies—more than a week after Haiti suffered a catastrophic earthquake is shocking beyond words. But that’s the reality the nation’s residents are facing.
Throughout last weekend, the scene of Haitians trying to make due with nothing but faith, digging for survivors [...]

Race issues are rarely discussed in a meaningful and substantive way in mainstream print or broadcast media. Yet, somehow, the possibility that a prominent person has revealed personal racial bias in some statement that hits airwaves and headlines often sends the media atwitter.
This happened recently when newspapers and television stations learned that Sen. Harry Reid [...]

Jan. 15, 2010 marks the 81st anniversary of the birth of one of America’s greatest citizens, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. It also marks the last full day of the term of another great American, Governor Tim Kaine. The coincidence of these events has an ironic ring of hopefulness, as the nation awaits a [...]

It is perhaps a new day for the enforcement of civil rights in America. The Department of Justice announced indictments earlier this week involving a police chief, a lieutenant and a patrol officer in Shenandoah, Pa., for allegedly covering up an anti-Latino hate crime that resulted in the death of Luis Ramirez last year.
It’s [...]

By Keith Rushing
Hollywood has gotten something right when it comes to race, finally. And sadly, at the same time that the industry took a small step forward, it missed another opportunity to make progress in a film dealing with race.
On Friday, Disney released ‘The Princess and The Frog’, a film featuring its first African-American [...]

By Keith Rushing
A story in yesterday’s New York Times speaks to the ways in which race is still very much a burden for African Americans, despite the historical milestone achieved in electing the nation’s first African-American president.
The story even raises the question of whether Obama’s election might make it harder to address racial discrimination given [...]

By Keith Rushing
The Catholic Archdiocese of Washington is intentionally planning to make the lives of the poor and needy just a little bit harder should a proposal to allow same-sex marriage become law.
Yep, You read that right. The church—angry that it would be required under the proposed law to avoid discriminating against gay couples by [...]

By Keith Rushing
We need a new civil rights movement. I’m sure some are inclined to ask why I’d say that. We ended legal segregation in the 1960s. We have a Black president. People are far more accepting now of racial difference than they [...]