Tag: civil rights
Civil rights activist, Republican mayor team up for health reform
Civil rights activist Bob Zellner is at it again—working for justice and equality.
Ken Plum: Slow, but steady, course of human rights
Ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment was already being hotly debated in the Virginia General Assembly when I became a member of the House of Delegates in 1978.
Commonwealth’s Attorneys speak out on impact of Governor’s executive order
Virginia Commonwealth’s Attorneys criticized Governor Terry McAuliffe’s executive order restoring the political rights of more than 206,000 convicted felons.
Ken Plum: Restoring voting rights
The restoration of civil rights after completing a sentence is automatic in most states and routine in those that have an application process.
House and Senate Republicans challenge McAuliffe’s rights restoration order
Republicans have retained an attorney to challenge Gov. McAuliffe’s order restoring the civil rights of over 206,000 convicted felons.
Republican leaders want special session to talk restoration of voting rights
Republican leaders called for a special session of the General Assembly to consider the Governor’s “Order for the Restoration of Rights.”
Ken Plum: Two civil rights heroes
Last week gave me an opportunity to see another of my civil rights heroes, former governor Linwood Holton.
Obenshain comments on governor’s action on civil rights restoration
Senator Mark Obenshain issued a statement in response to the Governor’s action to restore the civil rights of over 200,000 convicted felons.
House Democrats on governor’s restoration of rights announcement
Del. David Toscano and Del. Charniele Herring issued statements regarding the Governor’s historic restoration of rights announcement.
Howell: McAuliffe action on voting rights aimed at electing Hillary Clinton
House Speaker Bill Howell issued a statement on Governor McAuliffe’s executive order restoring the civil rights of 206,000 convicted felons.
Virginia Organizing responds to restoration of rights announcement
Virginia Organizing leaders were presentas Gov. McAuliffe announced executive action to restore civil rights to 206,000 returning citizens.
McAuliffe restores voting, civil rights to 200,000 Virginians
Governor Terry McAuliffe today restored the voting and civil rights of more than 200,000 Virginians who were convicted of felonies.
Sanders stresses economy, voting rights, courts in meeting with black leaders
U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders met Thursday at the National Urban League offices with leaders of nine historic civil rights organizations.
Civil rights pioneer Julian Bond dies at 75
Civil rights pioneer and former UVA history professor Julian Bond passed away on Saturday after a brief illness. Bond, 75, was a founder of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, a key organization in the 1960s civil rights movement, and later was a Georgia state legislator, a founder of the Southern Poverty Law Center and president of the NAACP.
UVA oral history project finding unique vantage point of civil rights era teachers
Civil rights leader Gardner C. Taylor, a close friend of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., died in March at the age of 96. His death is a poignant reminder to scholars working to preserve the stories of civil rights leaders that time is short.
GetEQUAL marks fifth anniversary with launch of No Asterisks campaign for full federal LGBTQ equality
Five years after the launch of the network, GetEQUAL announced a LGBTQ Bill of Rights, as part of a new “No Asterisks” campaign for full LGBTQ equality.
Civil rights symposium Feb. 19-20 at Washington and Lee
Hina Shamsi, director of the ACLU’s National Security Project, will be the Friday luncheon keynote speaker at a symposium on the 50th Anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and The Voting Rights Act of 1965: An Interdisciplinary Dialogue on Feb. 19-20.
Myrlie Evers-Williams to speak during Black History Month at W&L
Myrlie Evers-Williams, author, civil rights activist and past chair of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), will be the keynote speaker for Black History Month at Washington and Lee University.
Selma, and the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr.
Spoiler alert: Selma, in theaters now, ends on a high note, with Martin Luther King Jr. on the steps of the State Capitol in Birmingham, Ala., marking the end of a campaign that pushed Congress to pass the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Martin Luther King, 1963, and me
On Aug. 28, 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his impassioned “I Have a Dream Speech at the Lincoln Memorial. Two weeks earlier, a young girl played in the first integrated tennis match on the public courts of Richmond, Va.
James Madison University calendar: Jan. 16-25
Campus events and activities at James Madison University.
The need for a truth and reconciliation process
The killings of Michael Brown and Eric Garner have sparked a national outcry to end the epidemic of police brutality against black men. I believe our greatest hope lies in creating a truth and reconciliation process.
Charlottesville man receives right to vote, registers immediately at governor’s media conference
Davon Miller received his certificate showing his rights had been restored at a meeting with the Governor and Secretary of the Commonwealth Levar Stoney.
McAuliffe announces restoration of civil, voting rights to over 5,100 Virginians
Today Governor McAuliffe announced that Virginia has restored the civil and voting rights of over 5,100 ex-offenders, more than any other governor has done in just one year.
Inside the Newsroom: Rolling Stone backs off, New York stands up
Augusta Free Press editors Crystal Graham and Chris Graham dive into two major news stories in this edition of Inside the Newsroom.
Racial divide and be conquered
I read this post from the blog Gawker on a topic related to the racial tensions resulting from the inexplicable grand-jury actions in Missouri and New York that let a pair of cops who killed unarmed petty-crime suspects go free.
Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice, and freedom, everywhere
At the surface, the tensions over the failure of grand juries in Missouri and New York to indict cops who killed unarmed suspects in a pair of recent petty-crime cases have been directed at police.
Tasteless, indeed: St. Louis police try to silence football players?
Cops have First Amendment rights. So do football players, among the rest of us, but cops in St. Louis don’t like it when football players, and the rest of us, engage our First Amendment rights, and otherwise our more basic instincts to free expression.
Warner, Kaine offer support for confirmation of judicial nominee Elizabeth Dillon
U.S. Senators Mark Warner and Tim Kaine expressed their support for Elizabeth K. Dillon, nominee to the United States District Court for the Western District of Virginia.
Professor Charles Ogletree to give Mudd Distinguished Lecture in Ethics at W&L
Charles Ogletree, the Jesse Climenko Professor of Law at Harvard University, will give the Mudd Distinguished Lecture in Ethics for 2014-2015 at Washington and Lee University. Ogletree’s talk will be Wednesday, Oct. 1.
Virginia Organizing leaders in Blackstone for Annual Meeting
Virginia Organizing leaders from across the Commonwealth met in Blackstone September 5-7 for the annual Grassroots Gathering.
Free screening of Freedom Riders at Virginia Historical Society
Freedom Riders is the third in a series of films being shown by the Virginia Historical Society to encourage community conversations about the changing meaning of freedom and equality in contemporary American society.
Chris Graham: More echoes of the civil rights era in Ferguson
The grainy footage from the civil rights era protests of the 1960s is getting an update in HD with the ongoing unrest in Ferguson, Missouri, stemming from the police shooting of an unarmed teen two weeks ago.
ACLU warns Virginia law enforcement about ICE detainers
Today the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Virginia made public a letter it sent earlier this month to Virginia’s sheriffs, local and regional jail authorities, and adult and juvenile corrections officials asking these officials to deny future requests from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to keep people in custody who otherwise are free to be released.
Surprise move: Virginia AG to ask Supreme Court to review marriage equality case
Attorney General Mark R. Herring announced Tuesday that he will file a petition on Friday for a writ of certiorari with the Supreme Court of the United States asking it to hear Virginia’s marriage equality case and definitively settle the constitutional issues for the Commonwealth and the rest of the country.
McAuliffe administration has restored voting rights to 2,500 Virginians
Governor Terry McAuliffe announced today that his administration has restored the voting rights of more than 2,500 Virginians who were convicted of a felony, served their time and paid their debts to society.
Attorney General Mark Herring on same sex marriage ruling
Since the day we recognized our fight was for marriage equality, I have said that this will be a long journey that will involve victories and setbacks and may ultimately be destined for the U.S. Supreme Court to settle the matter for all Americans.
Another Democratic legislator resigns
Richmond Democratic State Sen. Henry Marsh has joined the parade of Democrats leaving the Virginia General Assembly.
Virginia Organizing leaders arrested at Boehner’s office
Five Virginia Organizing leaders, including two State Governing Board members, were arrested at Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives John Boehner’s office today while taking a stand in support of immigration reform.
Randy Forbes: The Wagon Wheel Illusion
An optical illusion exists called the Wagon Wheel effect. When the wagon wheel effect is taking place, a spoked wheel appears to rotate in a different direction than its true rotation.
President Obama on the 60th anniversary of Brown v. Board
Today marks 60 years since the Supreme Court handed down its landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision, the first major step in dismantling the “separate but equal” doctrine that justified Jim Crow.
Raj Jayadev: Movement building and challenging mass incarceration
I recently received a poem, “The New Jim Crows,” from an unlikely source: North Carolina Public Defender Danny Spiegel. Spiegel’s poem is an outpouring of the heartache and frustrations of his occupation, of how he is forced to bear witness to the damages of mass incarceration.
Strong support for McAuliffe’s restoration of rights action
Gov. Terry McAuliffe today announced amendments to Virginia’s restoration of rights policy, which increased transparency in the process and will enable more Virginians to have their rights restored sooner.
ACLU applauds McAuliffe on restoration of rights reforms
Over 450,000 Virginians are unable to vote because of the Commonwealth’s felon disenfranchisement law. Many of these Virginians are disenfranchised because of a drug felony conviction.
Gov. McAuliffe announces changes to restoration of rights policy
Today Governor Terry McAuliffe announced his amendments to the Commonwealth of Virginia’s process by which rehabilitated felons can have their voting rights restored after they have paid their debt to society.
VCU unveils rare collection of Virginia civil rights protest photographs
Virginia Commonwealth University is hoping for the public’s help in shedding new light on a pivotal moment in the civil rights struggle in Virginia with a new exhibit of 277 photographs taken during nonviolent civil rights protests in Farmville, Va., in the summer of 1963.
Attorney General Mark Herring comments on same sex marriage case
Attorney General Mark R. Herring released a statement after oral arguments were heard Tuesday in Bostic v. Rainey, a challenge in federal court to Virginia’s ban on same sex marriage.
Created Equal: America’s civil rights struggle film screenings at Waynesboro Public Library
To mark the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King’s March on Washington, Waynesboro Public Library will offer a series of screenings and scholarly presentations centered on several documentaries with riveting new footage illustrating the history of civil rights in America.
Chris Graham: Marriage equality now the law of the land?
Virginia is hardly the leader of the pack in the area of marriage equality, but maybe we can be an interesting bellwether. Just as the state’s votes for Barack Obama for president in 2008 and 2012 broke the Solid South politically, maybe today’s move by Attorney General Herring can ignite a wave of change in the South regarding the last remaining civil rights issue of our time.
ACLU committed to finding the solutions to reform mental health system
The ACLU of Virginia released on Monday principles addressing mental health reform legislation. The principles are intended to guide legislators in balancing the need for reform with the civil rights of all Virginians.
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