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Loving v. Virginia Still Relevant 40 Years LaterMore than 40 years after the U.S. Supreme Court declared laws barring interracial marriage unconstitutional, it was upsetting to learn that a Louisiana justice of the peace has denied a marriage license to an interracial couple. On one hand, the public's reaction to this terrible act shows we've come a long way since the Supreme Court ruled that preserving the racial integrity of its citizens does not justify Virginia's law banning people of different races from marrying. Yet that this act could happen at all, especially by an official of the state of Louisiana, is still sobering. Justice of the peace Keith Bardwell's justification for refusing to issue the license is especially troubling. Bardwell told the Daily Star of Hammond, LA, that he was not a racist but merely concerned about the welfare of any children the couple may have. Racism veiled in concern for children is nothing new. No doubt this same sentiment was expressed by many seemingly well-intended people back in 1958 when a sheriff and two deputies stormed the bedroom of Mildred and Richard Loving in the early morning, and arrested the couple because it was illegal under Virginia law for Richard, who was white, to be married to Mildred, who was black and Native American. The couple eventually pled guilty to violating the law, and rather than spend a year in jail, they agreed to leave the state for 25 years. Following the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, Mildred wrote Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, asking him if the new law would allow them to live together in Virginia. Kennedy forwarded the letter to the ACLU, which persuaded the U.S. Supreme Court in the 1967 case, Loving v. Virginia, to strike the law. The notion that government has any business meddling in matters of the heart is absurd. Why should government get to decide which couples are worthy of marriage and which aren't? Fortunately, in the years since the Supreme Court struck down the Virginia law, most people have come to realize that laws barring interracial marriage were based on nothing more than prejudice and deep-seated hostility that flew in the face of our nation's promise of equality. And few people understood the pain that comes from that prejudice and hostility as well as Mildred Loving -- who, just months before she died, issued a statement on the 40th anniversary of the Supreme Court decision in her case, urging support for marriage for lesbian and gay couples.
Stimulus Funds Must Acknowledge Employment Gap(Also published on Daily Kos.) Widely regarded as the last opportunity to enjoy summer with a three-day weekend of cookouts and trips to the beach, Labor Day, the United States Department of Labor’s website informs us, was originally intended as “a yearly national tribute to the contributions workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of the country”. Ironically, this year’s tribute comes in the form of the announcement that the national unemployment rate has reached 9.7 percent, its highest level in 26 years. The increasing unemployment rate is one of the most disturbing results of the economic recession which became the subject of newspaper articles a little more than a year ago. The consequences of the current economic crisis are serious for the nation as a whole but are particularly critical for communities of color. On its website, www.fairrecovery.org, in which the ACLU participates as a partner, the Kirwan Institute for Race and Ethnicity reports that although the nation has been in a recession for a little more than a year, communities of color have been experiencing a recession for nearly five years and, in the course of the last year, have moved into a depression. If the terms “recession” and “depression” are too abstract, the unemployment statistics are clear and concrete. While the rest of the country watches apprehensively as overall unemployment figures approach 10 percent, communities of color have been experiencing double-digit unemployment for some time. In July, 2009, Latino unemployment levels stood at 12.2 percent while the unemployment rate of African-Americans was 14.7 percent. Sadly, even being employed is no guarantee of opportunity for people of color because of the fact that they are far more likely to be employed in low-wage jobs. For these workers, many of whom are immigrants, wage theft and exploitation runs rampant. Three discrete groups are particularly vulnerable to abuse, discrimination, and human rights violations (PDF): domestic and agricultural workers, temporary workers (or guestworkers), and undocumented workers. Not all of the news is bad, however. In fact, the increase in the unemployment rate appears to be slowing enough for Jared Bernstein, one of Vice President Joe Biden’s economic advisors, to remark that “[t]he overall message in these numbers is that we’re headed in the right direction but we’re far from out of the woods.” Many economists believe that the infusion of federal stimulus funds may have insulated the economy from even more serious negative consequences. If that is true, it is especially important that the positive effects of stimulus funds be felt by everyone in the nation, particularly those segments of the population who started the recession behind the rest of the nation and have been particularly battered by the effects of the recession. For that reason, the fairrecovery.org website was created to facilitate the effort to use stimulus funding as a means of assuring equal opportunity for all. Labor Day serves as a reminder of the way that employment remains an area in which there is inequality and by which “the strength, prosperity and well-being of the nation” can be strengthened and reinforced by efforts to assure that all communities are given the opportunity to enjoy the full benefits of their labor.
Racial Equality Is Within Our Reach(Originally posted on Daily Kos.) Four events in the past 10 days invite reflection on the question of race in 2009. Beyond the fact that there was some level of involvement by the ACLU in each, there were no obvious connections between the four. On closer examination, though, each raises significant and related questions about the likelihood of achieving true racial equality in the near future as well as the steps necessary to assure future opportunity for everyone. On June 26, the Kirwan Institute for Race and Ethnicity at Ohio State University, along with partners including the ACLU, announced the launch of a website, www.fairrecovery.org, intending to highlight the uneven impact of the current economic crisis on communities of color and the need to assure that stimulus funding reach those communities. The website contains a host of tools and resources to make it possible for the stimulus funds to be distributed equitably. But included with links to information about the funding and the applicable law controlling its distribution is a sobering message about current inequalities and a cautionary note pointing out how prior efforts to address economic needs not only failed to address wealth gaps, but actually made them worse. The website illustrates how the high levels of unemployment and housing foreclosures which triggered the economic crisis had existed in communities of color long before there was any general concern about the national economic state as a whole. And the site reminds us that highly touted programs such as the G.I. Bill, social security and interstate highway construction programs contributed to conditions which hurt the ability of people of color to enjoy equal opportunity. With that reminder, the site urges us to heed the past and assure that we don’t repeat it. One day after fairrecovery.org launched, a circuit court judge struck down a proposed ballot initiative aimed at amending the Missouri Constitution to forbid affirmative action in education, public contracting and public employment. The initiative is part of a concerted effort initiated by Ward Connerly, the Californian anti-affirmative crusader, to prohibit the consideration of race in these areas. The effort appears to be based on the belief that the greatest barriers to participation in the social and economic life of the country is suffered by whites, notwithstanding the evidence that shows that people of color continue to be exposed to discrimination regardless of their education or economic level. As significant as the victory is, it is based in large part on state procedural requirements for initiating ballot initiatives, and Timothy Asher, the sponsor of the proposed initiative, has re-started the process in order to try to get the anti-affirmative action initiative on the ballot. On June 29, in a case in which the ACLU has submitted a friend-of-the-court brief, the U.S. Supreme Court announced its decision holding that the City of New Haven had violated the rights of 17 white firefighters and 1 Latino firefighter to be free from discriminatory treatment under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 when it decided to scrap the results of a test that the city believed had unfairly disadvantaged black and other Latino firefighters in violation of a different provision of the same statute. The precise effects of the ruling remain to be seen. What is immediately certain is that New Haven, which has a long and sorry history of discrimination in the hiring of nonwhite firefighters and whose nonwhite population is nearly 60 percent, will continue to be served by a fire department with few people of color in its ranks. At the same time that the Supreme Court was making it more difficult for the City of New Haven to increase the number of nonwhite officers in the ranks of its firefighters, the ACLU announced the release of a report to the United Nations outlining the widespread persistence of racial profiling despite the Bush administration’s denial of the problem. The report documents instance after instance of people denied the ability to participate in society in the most basic way because of their race, religion or ethnicity. This confluence of recent events reveals a systemic disconnect between the clear fact of continuing racial inequality and the progressively greater roadblocks to its elimination. Courts and government agencies blithely assert the creed of color-blindness in the face of clear and unequivocal proof of the negative impact associated with race in the United States. Despite this frustrating dissonance, there is hope. Whatever else the Supreme Court did, it did not shut the court house door to plaintiffs seeking relief under federal civil rights laws, nor did it prohibit governments from taking steps to eliminate discriminatory hiring practices. The U.N. has been advocating for the adoption of measures, such as the passage of a federal End Racial Profiling Act, which hold the promise of taking steps to eliminate racial profiling. As fairrecovery.org illustrates, careful use of stimulus funds could result in economic fairness and true equality of opportunity. And, perhaps, efforts to limit the ability of states to bring fairness to their hiring, contracting and educational policies can be defeated. None of these things can happen without a conscious decision on the part of the government and the American people to recognize the need to take the steps to acknowledge and the address those things which keep us from living up to the promises of our laws and our core beliefs. Tags: U.S. Supreme Court
Brown Anniversary a Chance to Renew Our Commitment to EqualityEach landmark anniversary of the historic Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education invites us to answer two questions. The first involves a retrospective focus on Brown in the context of the decisions that came before it and the social changes that it engendered. This question seeks to find out how important Brown really was. The second question requires taking stock of where we are now and how far we have come since 1954 in our pursuit of racial justice. This week marked the 55th anniversary of the first Brown decision. Coming as it does in a year that witnessed the inauguration of the first African-American president, those questions seem even more important. At the same time, the answers become more complicated and nuanced. Brown was decided at a time when most American schools were segregated as a result of explicit legal requirements, or by a series of policies and practices — including rampant housing segregation — that imposed a virtual system of apartheid upon American society. Segregation in education was just one manifestation of that system. Restrictions based on race, color and ethnicity created barriers to housing, patronizing restaurants and other public accommodations, voting and even marriage. By confronting and rejecting the dishonesty and hypocrisy in the doctrine of "separate but equal" in the area of public education, the decision became a keystone in the civil rights movement of the succeeding decades, which saw court decisions and legislation aimed at addressing discrimination in its many forms. Brown was instrumental in initiating many of the civil rights advances that occurred in its wake. It is also true that but for it and measures like the Voting Rights Act, the Fair Housing Act, the Equal Employment Opportunity Act and the scores of cases interpreting the 14th Amendment, the conditions that lead to the election of an African-American president could not have occurred. But what, exactly, does Barack Obama's election say about how much we've progressed since Brown? Having an African-American in the nation's highest office suggests we have travelled an enormous distance. A careful look at the state of race in the United States, however, suggests we still have a long way to go to achieve the level of equality envisioned by Brown. Sadly, many of the concerns raised during previous Brown anniversaries — about injustices like racial profiling and the absence of equal access to quality education, employment and housing — are still too much with us. The passage of additional time only underscores the frustration. Despite the fact that hundreds of Brown-era cases are still on the dockets of courts throughout the country, the level of segregation has been steadily increasing to levels approaching pre-Brown levels. Nor is this the only way in which things have worsened. The sad fact is that people of color today represent a greater percentage of incarcerated Americans then they did during the Jim Crow era. And during a time of economic upheaval, as the nation fearfully watches national unemployment figures approach 10 percent of the work force, the reality is that the unemployment rate among African-Americans has hovered close to that level since 2007, when 8.6 percent of African-Americans were unemployed compared to 4.8 percent of the general population. Absent significant, race-conscious recovery efforts, the Kirwan Institute argues, the African-American unemployment rate will climb to 18.2 percent by 2010. One aspect of the Brown decision has proven to be remarkably prescient: by holding that segregation harmed black children by stigmatizing them in a way unlikely ever to be undone, the Court made a powerful and poignant statement about the extent of the injury caused by segregation and discrimination, and the difficulty of erasing that effect. Of course, the Court was speaking about inequality's effects on a particular generation of school children. But our experiences since 1954 show that their words apply as fittingly to the long-lasting effects of discrimination and inequality on our society as a whole. In many ways, parts of that stigma have been addressed. And so while it might be overly pessimistic to believe that the stigmatization of race is unlikely ever to be undone completely, it is clear that the struggle will indeed be a long one. We owe it to our nation and to the people who fought for the ideals of Brown to regard this 55th anniversary not as a day to remember what happened in the long past, but rather as an occasion to renew our vows to work for justice and equality.
Obama Gives Us a Foot in the Door(Originally posted at Daily Kos.) The historic election of Barack Obama is groundbreaking for a host of reasons, not least of which is the illustration it provides of the status of race in the United States in 2008. The election of an African American is stunning considering the tragic history of race in this country. After all, despite the enactment of the 15th Amendment in 1870 which prohibited racial discrimination in voting, it was still necessary to pass the Voting Rights Act in 1965 in order to address the wholesale disenfranchisement of black voters which occurred despite the specific protections promised by the Constitution nearly a century before. So recent was this broad denial of voting opportunity that a significant number of people casting their votes in support of Obama were earlier precluded from voting entirely on the basis of their race. Nor is voting the only area in which we have witnessed enormous changes. As commentators have pointed out, Virginia's anti-miscegenation laws had not yet been struck down at the time Barack Obama was born. Given that history, it is truly extraordinary that Obama carried a state in which his parents, had they elected to live there, would have been considered criminals solely by virtue of their being married and of different races Obama's election therefore represents a milestone in this country's battle against discrimination. It is a victory not only for persons of color but for all Americans. Indeed, one of the most striking things about the election was seeing a crowd of Obama supporters which included people of every race and ethnicity, every age and every economic level. This inclusiveness bodes well for the nation's future. In the days ahead, much of Obama's success will depend upon his ability to carry that inclusiveness forward in order to assure that all citizens enjoy equal opportunities — both for their own benefit and the benefit of the country as a whole. Much of the work of the ACLU, and its Racial Justice Program in particular, has concentrated on trying to assure that the promise of equality and opportunity exemplified by Obama's election is extended to all Americans. Examples of this are many. In the area of voting, one of Obama's greatest achievements was to inspire and encourage the broadest possible participation in the electoral process. Likewise, the ACLU's efforts to restore the opportunity to vote to persons convicted of crimes who have discharged their debt to society by completing their sentences is an attempt to make it possible for those people to become productive participants in democratic society. Obama's path to the presidency is the result in large part of his taking full advantage of educational opportunities provided to him. Much of the ACLU's work seeks to make opportunities available to all children regardless of race or ethnicity or economic status through the removal of barriers which unfairly impede the progress of many students. Through its work attempting to increase graduation rates, reduce racial, ethnic and economic isolation, address inequity in educational resources and attempting to assure safety in schools while keeping children in classrooms and out of the criminal justice system, we hope to provide all students with the opportunity to realize their potential and become contributors to society as a whole. Through its work combating racial and ethnic profiling and its efforts to assure fairness in the criminal justice system, the ACLU seeks to restore public confidence in the law enforcement and criminal justice system in much the same way that the recent election re-affirmed the democratic process and helped restore the perception of the integrity of the process to people in this country and abroad. A number of observers, including Sen. John McCain in his concession speech, described Obama's success as a sign that we as a nation have overcome our unfortunate racial history. Despite the remarkable advance which Obama's success represents, far too many people remain hampered by unequal opportunities for us to declare final victory over inequality. But progress is undeniable and the path we must pursue to assure that all Americans enjoy the opportunity to realize their potential as individuals and citizens is clear. Having seen Barack Obama pass through the door of opportunity, it would be tragic to permit it to close for so many others. Tags: Civil Liberties News
American NGOs Brief CERD Panel
This afternoon, American NGOs had the first opportunity to present to members of the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD). Representatives covered a broad array of issues arising from a range of geographical areas. Although the concerns addressed varied widely, all of them presented a stark contrast to the United States' claims of a network of legal protections administered by law enforcement at all levels of government all operating to the benefit of all American people.
Some advocates testified about the ways that those responsible for enforcing laws all too often are sources of fear. Individuals testified about the ways that police and border control agents beat and sexually abuse of women of color and immigrants; about the ways that police officers assigned to schools in New York City and elsewhere in the United States harass and abuse the students they are supposed to protect; how women of color, particularly tribal women, who report physical abuse have their complaints ignored or, worse, are subjected to physical abuse by law enforcement agents; how foster children, mostly children of color, are denied the opportunity to see and build relationships with incarcerated mothers and how incarcerated women face the indignity of giving birth while shackled to their beds. In some cases, such as the treatment of African-Americans in post-Katrina New Orleans, strategic neglect has been added to mistreatment. Advocates recounted the persistence of police checkpoints in African-American neighborhoods, continued police violence toward people of color, and the disproportionate efforts to rebuild wealthy white neighborhoods while poorer communities of color are permitted to languish with their problems unaddressed and no plans in place to revitalize those communities or create viable housing for their residents. The testimony, though lasting only an hour, suggested widespread patterns of systemic discrimination on the basis of race, gender, immigration status, ethnicity, and gender identity too extensive to describe here. Although the testimony precluded time for questioning by the panel, its members promised to return to the subject of the testimony at convening later this week. All of the advocates, who represent a dizzying array of NGOs, are hopeful that the testimony is a meaningful step in the effort to convey the persistence of racial injustice in the United States. Tags: Civil Liberties News
Brown at 53: A Call to Action
Today marks the 53rd anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education, and as we remember the landmark ruling that forever changed the course of public education in the United States, we do so with mixed feelings of celebration and regret. Rejecting the notion of "separate but equal" that had ruled the U.S. for generations, the Brown decision was and remains one of the nation's clearest calls for justice and racial equality in public education. But decades later, that vision of quality, integrated schools for all children, remains a dream deferred. Too many of our nation's youth are confined to overcrowded, underfunded schools that are every bit as segregated as in the days before Brown , and in some cases, even more so.
Remembering all that has changed since Brown, and all that has not, the American Civil Liberties Union remains committed to the fight to make the vision expressed in Brown a reality. In Connecticut, we are negotiating a settlement that will help to realize the dream of quality, integrated schools for hundreds more Hartford-area schoolchildren in the years to come. We have filed an amicus brief with the Supreme Court, urging it to uphold the continued use of initiatives that help communities create integrated schools as it considers the constitutionality of voluntary school integration programs that use race as a factor in student assignment. In districts around the country, we are working to end the School to Prison Pipeline , a disturbing national trend in which primarily students of color are pushed out of schools and into the juvenile justice system. Much has been accomplished since the Court's 1954 decision in Brown, and much remains to be done. Today and every day forward, we celebrate Brown as a call to action. Tags: Civil Liberties News |
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