civil rights – News Stories About civil rights - Page 11

Apr 3, 2008 8:18 AM CDT

Chinese Rights Advocate Jailed

EU, US slam China's handling of Hu Jia's case

(Newser) - A top Chinese human-rights activist has been sentenced to three and a half years in prison for writings and comments considered subversive, the New York Times reports. The case of Hu Jia, 34, been watched closely around the world; critics see it as part of a government crackdown on dissidents...

Lewis Switches His Support
to Obama

Feb 27, 2008 5:15 PM CST

Lewis Switches His Support to Obama

Georgia lawmaker and superdelegate initially backed Clinton

(Newser) - After a month of shifting signals, influential congressman John Lewis said today he’s switching his support from Hillary Clinton to Barack Obama, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports. Lewis says he’s unwilling to go against the voters in his Atlanta district—and that Obama “has tapped into something that...

Rights Activist Carr Dies at 97

Feb 23, 2008 4:00 PM CST

Rights Activist Carr Dies at 97

Friend of Rosa Parks and organizer of 1955 Ala. Bus Boycott

(Newser) - Johnnie Rebecca Carr, an early leader in the civil rights movement and compatriot of Rosa Parks, has died of a stroke at age 97, the Montgomery Advertiser reports. Carr helped organize the Montgomery Improvement Association in 1955 after Parks made her famous stand on a city bus. The group's yearlong...

Spears Pal Strikes Back Against Dad

Feb 16, 2008 7:34 AM CST

Spears Pal Strikes Back Against Dad

Ex-manager asks court to spring Britney from family control

(Newser) - Britney Spears' former manager and pal Sam Lutfi is trying to liberate her from her family's control by getting her case moved from Los Angeles to federal court, E! reports. He's arguing in a petition that Jamie Spears is unfit to oversee his daughter's life and that she's being...

Kids Line Up Behind Obama

Jan 28, 2008 4:07 PM CST

Kids Line Up Behind Obama

Young voters reject old-timey partisan bickering

(Newser) - With "youth vote" challenging "change" as the buzzword of the 2008 elections, Barack Obama is drawing hordes of young people tired of what one campaign worker calls “the old partisan fights and bickering,” reports Voice of America. John Edwards also appeals to the young, but the...

King's Church Rings With Praise

Jan 21, 2008 3:04 PM CST

King's Church Rings With Praise

Bill Clinton, Huckabee pay respects to civil rights leader

(Newser) - The Atlanta church where Martin Luther King Jr. preached his message of racial equality rang with praise today for the slain civil rights leader, reports the AP. Hundreds of notables, including Bill Clinton, Mike Huckabee, and Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin, crammed into Ebenezer Baptist Church. "King's legacy gives light...

Obama Visits MLK's Church

Jan 20, 2008 7:50 PM CST

Obama Visits MLK's Church

Senator speaks of 'empathy deficit' as Clinton campaigns in Harlem

(Newser) - On the eve of Martin Luther King, Jr. day, Barack Obama visited the civil rights leader’s old church and repeated his mantra of unity, the Chicago Tribune reports. “If enough Americans were awakened to the injustice,” Obama said, “if they joined together, then perhaps that wall...

Cheney May Testify in 'Assault' Arrest Lawsuit

Jan 18, 2008 3:00 AM CST

Cheney May Testify in 'Assault' Arrest Lawsuit

Turmoil in Cheney's Secret Service detail

(Newser) - Vice President Dick Cheney may be questioned under oath in a free-speech and civil rights lawsuit brought by a man who was arrested and threatened with assault charges when he approached Cheney at a ski resort. The 2006 incident has sparked a storm of controversy inside the Secret Service with...

Obama Pastor
Faulted for
Farrakhan Rave

OPINION

Jan 15, 2008 4:38 PM CST

Obama Pastor Faulted for Farrakhan Rave

Incensed scribe cries racism; candidate deplores same

(Newser) - Barack Obama’s controversial pastor is back in the press—and the blogosphere—this time for praising Louis Farrakhan in an issue of the church's magazine, calling him "an unforgettable force, a catalyst for change and a religious leader who is sincere about his faith and his purpose."...

Sharpton Insists He Still Has
a Role to Play

Dec 26, 2007 2:34 PM CST

Sharpton Insists He Still Has a Role to Play

Civil rights leader not threatened by new wave of black politicians

(Newser) - Is there a place for Al Sharpton in a Barack Obama world? The first black politician with a serious shot at the Oval Office hardly mentions race, whereas Sharpton is, as one historian puts it, “kind of a racial ambulance chaser.” But Sharpton isn’t worried. “They...

Debaters Inspires, Critics Argue

NEW RELEASE

Dec 25, 2007 5:01 PM CST

Debaters Inspires, Critics Argue

Film may play it by wrote, but it does it with conviction

(Newser) - The Great Debaters, which follows a Jim Crow-era black debate team, aims only for “inspirational pop entertainment in the Oprah Winfrey mode,” but it still manages to resonate, says the New York Times’ Stephen Holden. It is conventional, and sometimes clichéd, in telling the classic underdog story....

Supremes: Judges Can Shorten Crack Sentences

Dec 10, 2007 1:00 PM CST

Supremes: Judges Can Shorten Crack Sentences

Court sides with judicial discretion

(Newser) - The Supreme Court ruled today that federal judges can use discretion to order shorter prison sentences in crack cocaine crimes, to lessen a disparity with sentencing for powdered cocaine. It was a win for civil rights advocates, who have long argued that sentencing guidelines call for longer terms in crimes...

Justice Dept. March Targets Hate Crimes

Nov 16, 2007 3:19 PM CST

Justice Dept. March Targets Hate Crimes

Thousands rally in DC for more aggressive prosecution

(Newser) - Thousands of marchers converged near the Justice Department in Washington, DC, today, to protest what they say is a lax attitude toward prosecuting hate crimes. The marchers, led by Al Sharpton and Martin Luther King III, cited the Jena 6 controversy in Louisiana and a subsequent spate of incidents involving...

Harper Lee Awarded Medal of Freedom

Nov 6, 2007 4:50 AM CST

Harper Lee Awarded Medal of Freedom

Civil rights pioneer Hooks also receives highest civilian honor

(Newser) - Author Harper Lee and NAACP pioneer Benjamin Hooks yesterday received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, America's highest civilian honor, for their work for racial equality. Lee, 81, wrote the 1960 Pulitzer-winning classic To Kill a Mockingbird, which challenged racism and was made into a powerful movie featuring Gregory Peck. The...

Label Doesn't Fit to a T

Oct 10, 2007 3:46 PM CDT

Label Doesn't Fit to a T

Salon pundit ponders paradox of gay-rights bill threatened by inclusion of trans

(Newser) - As the fate of legislation that would protect gay people from employment discrimination hangs in the balance, gay leaders have withdrawn support—because protection for the transgendered has been dropped from the bill. The liberal instinct to “want it all now” has run amok, John Aravosis argues, and boosters...

DA Ends Bid to Try 'Jena 6' Teen as Adult

Sep 27, 2007 4:39 PM CDT

DA Ends Bid to Try 'Jena 6' Teen as Adult

Move could hasten release of key player in Louisiana race case

(Newser) - A prosecutor has given up attempts to have one of the Louisiana teenagers at the center of a civil-rights furor tried as an adult, Reuters reports. Mychal Bell, 17, was convicted in June of battery in the beating of a white classmate, but an appeals court overturned the verdict on...

Civil Rights Icons Return to Little Rock

Sep 25, 2007 3:49 PM CDT

Civil Rights Icons Return to Little Rock

Nine trailblazers observe 50th anniversary of Central High desegregation

(Newser) - The Little Rock Nine returned to Central High today to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the school's integration. Once escorted by soldiers from the 101st Airborne, they arrived by limousine to a school that's now 52% black, the AP reports. "They didn't ask to be a part of history,...

50K Rally to Support 'Jena Six'

Sep 20, 2007 12:30 PM CDT

50K Rally to Support 'Jena Six'

Huge crowds arrive in tiny town to protest trial of black students

(Newser) - Busload after busload of civil rights marchers alighted in Jena, La., today to support the “Jena Six,” a group of black students charged with felonies after a 2006 fight with a white classmate. An estimated 50,000 mostly-black protesters easily outnumbered the mostly-white population of the town, where...

Flip-Floppers See Light—Or Just Want Job

Sep 18, 2007 8:26 AM CDT

Flip-Floppers See Light—Or Just Want Job

Romney and Kerry stand in long line of political mind-changing

(Newser) - Maybe Mitt Romney and John Kerry should hold their flip-flopping heads high: Changes of mind have furthered the causes of abolition and civil rights over the centuries. Ronald Reagan defiantly claimed his biggest reversal—promising feet “in concrete” about raising taxes, then singing “the sound of concrete cracking”...

School Segregation Is Up

Aug 30, 2007 7:39 AM CDT

School Segregation Is Up

Black and Latino children flood public schools, risk receiving "separate and inferior" educations

(Newser) - US public schools are more and more divided by race, a trend likely to continue thanks to a June Supreme Court ruling forbidding most local integration efforts, Reuters reports. Many black and Latino children, who now make up 43% of the population, are receiving what a leading civil rights research...