News on Civil Rights

A civil rights group on whose board Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor served filed racial bias lawsuits over employment examinations that resemble a Connecticut case in which she ruled against white firefighters, documents released by the Senate show. The Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund represented Hispanic sanitation workers in New York City who wanted to stop white employees from getting promotions because, they argued, the qualifying exam unfairly disadvantaged minorities. The case unfolded as ...

A civil rights group advised by Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor in the 1980s brought several discrimination lawsuits that sought to scrap the results of job tests because too few Hispanics scored well, according to new documents that are fueling GOP criticism of the judge. The Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund represented Hispanic sanitation workers in New York City who wanted to stop white employees from getting promotions because, they argued, the qualifying exam unfairly disadvantaged ...

President Barack Obama says the Civil Rights Act opened doors for freedom but inequities remain on the legislation's 45th anniversary. On Thursday, Obama released a statement praising the 1964 law that ended legal discrimination. Obama says Americans must continue to break down barriers to equality and fulfill the promises of that legislation. Obama says the act won passage because Americans of all backgrounds "stood up, sat down, and marched in freedom's cause" together.

President Obama made powerful, significant statements at the June 29th LGBT Stonewall reception, but I fear that the most telling words have been lost by the mass media. Obama’s words relate to the intersection of sexuality and race, and they foretell the difficulty in moving the agenda forward—a mission the National Black Justice Coalition (NBJC) was founded upon and been advocating ever since our inception five years ago.

Many gay and lesbian people wonder how ...