New York City has quietly reached settlements with several plaintiffs in a federal class-action lawsuit alleging that the city’s trespassing-enforcement policies in public housing complexes are discriminatory and unlawful, lawyers and others said this week.
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Civil Rights and Race Relations in America and Their Impact on the Lives of African Americans
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Caucus seeking more majority-black seats in Legislature
3/04/11Source:The News StarBATON ROUGE -- Members of the Louisiana Legislative Black Caucus say they want to expand the number of majority-black seats in the Legislature and Congress, but they will be careful not to weaken existing districts.
At an all-day event Thursday at the Southern University Law Center, state and national figures involved in drawing election districts discussed laws affecting redistricting and how the U.S. Department of Justice must approve any changes made in the state's current plan.
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nyt: Policing in Public Housing Leads City to Pay Some Plaintiffs
3/04/11Source:The New York TimesEleanor Britt, 63, of the Taft Houses rejected a city offer to settle her claims as part of a class-action lawsuit.
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The Next Generation of Civil Rights Leaders
3/03/11Source:The Huffington PostIn celebration of Black History Month, we at the New York Urban League brought together four next-generation leaders to talk about the state of the civil rights movement in the 21st century.
What unfolded was a provocative conversation that touched on many themes such as class, equity, apathy and honoring our elders. In two hours, we developed few solutions, but it was evident that, contrary to negative stereotypes, 20- and 30-year-olds genuinely care about their communities.
The Civil Rights Struggle is More Complex -
LA Times: Rights group takes a step-by-step approach on gay marriage
3/02/11Source:The Los Angeles TimesGay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders, or GLAD, is arguing that it is unconstitutional to discriminate against gay couples who are already legally married. It hopes its incremental approach will lead to a broader ruling by the Supreme Court.
Two years ago, a small and little-known civil rights group in Boston launched a legal attack on the federal Defense of Marriage Act, which defines marriage as a legal union between a man and woman. But it did not argue that gays and lesbians have a right to marry under the Constitution.
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Reading Thurgood Marshall’s early letters
2/24/11Source:The St. Louis AmericanThere is nothing quite like a major figure from history speaking to us directly. This is the experience we have when reading Marshalling Justice: The Early Civil Rights Letters of Thurgood Marshall (Amistad, 2011).