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Racial Justice
Locking Up Our Children: ACLU Report on Unjust Detention of Youth in Massachusetts (5/12/2008)
A widespread practice in Massachusetts of locking up youth
accused of minor offenses and who pose little or no danger to their communities
is unfair, threatens public safety and wastes public money, according to a
report released in May 2008 by the American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of
Massachusetts. The report documents the
use of detention by state judges as a rehabilitative tool to frighten youth
never convicted of wrongdoing. The report also addresses the woeful lack of
placement availability in the state's child welfare and mental health systems
that leave detention as the only viable option for youth who cannot safely be
returned to their homes. Locking Up Our Children is a follow-up report to a 2003 report by the ACLU, which documented the disproportionate representation of youth of color in Massachusett's juvenile justice system.
Report: Turning a Blind Eye to Racial Discrimination in America
The government report failed to level with the international community about the U.S.'s human rights record when it comes to racial injustice. The ACLU's report details police brutality and racial profiling, voter disfranchisement and skyrocketing rates of incarceration, and wide, corrosive effects of racial discrimination.
> Report: Race & Ethnicity in America
> 12/10/2007: New ACLU Report Details Pervasive Racial Discrimination in America
> 6/13/2007: ACLU Calls State Department Report a "Complete Whitewash"
Report: Persistent Racial Disparities in Federal Death Penalty (6/25/2007)
Coauthored by the ACLU's Capital Punishment Project and Racial Justice Program, this report details the persistent racial disparities in federal death penalty sentencing. Mounting evidence suggests that race continues to play a role in who lives or dies in the federal judicial system.
> Read the Report
Broken Promises: Two Years After Katrina (8/10/2006)
Two years ago, Hurricane Katrina ripped through the Gulf Coast, devastating the homes and lives of millions of people. The ACLU has been inundated with reports of racial injustice and human rights violations in Louisiana and Mississippi, both during and since Katrina. Broken Promises, a comprehensive report from the ACLU, documents the terrible conditions and dangerous lack of planning at the Orleans Parish Prison, and details other increases in police abuse, racial profiling, housing discrimination, along with other civil liberties violations and the ACLU's continuing response.
Read the report and learn more>>
NYCLU and ACLU Report Calls for End to Over-Policing in New York City Schools (3/18/2007)
Criminalizing the Classroom: The Over-Policing of New York City Schools examines the origins and the consequences of the city's aggressive policing operation in schools. It provides analyses of the results of a broad student survey and profiles of individual students whose experiences illuminate the problems with policing in schools.
> Press Release
> Report
ACLU Fights to End Racial Inequity and Harshness in Cocaine Sentencing (10/26/2006)
The Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986 established mandatory minimum sentencing policies that subject people who are low-level cocaine users to the same or harsher sentences as major dealers. The Act also established a 1-to-100 sentencing disparity between crack and powder cocaine, making the minimum sentence for 500 grams of powder cocaine - a more expensive drug primarily used by affluent whites - the same as that for just 5 grams of crack - a drug whose primary users are low-income people, many of whom are African American.
This discrepancy remains although there is no medical basis for the difference, and despite repeated recommendations by the U.S. Sentencing Commission to Congress to reconsider the penalties. The ACLU is working to educate the public about these discrepancies and to change these racist and draconian drug policies. Read more at the website of the Drug Law Reform Project >>
A Blueprint for Meeting the Needs of Texas Girls in Custody
Drawing on intensive on-site research, this report describes the conditions of confinement experienced by girls in the custody of the Texas Youth Commission (TYC). In TYC's massive juvenile prisons, a harsh regime of control and punishment not only fails to rehabilitate girls, but exacerbates past trauma and inflicts additional damage on confined children.
Learn More >>
A Bond Forged in Struggle: The ACLU's Historic Alliance with African-Americans in the Quest for Racial Justice
The report recounts the ACLU's ongoing efforts seeking racial equality in America. The ACLU’s decades-long racial justice docket has included victories in many important areas, from discrimination in housing, education and access to public services, to racial profiling and prisoners’ rights. Significant progress has been made, to be sure. But after Katrina’srains subsided, no one could deny that there was still much left to be done.
> Report: A Bond Forged in Struggle: The ACLU's Historic Alliance with African-Americans in the Quest for Racial Justice |
Disproportionate Minority Confinement in Massachusetts (6/2/2003)
As of 2003, although approximately seven out of 10 children confined to Massachusetts' state facilities were youth of color, the state had never collected the data necessary to determine why this was the case. Of the $35 million the state received in from 1998-2003 for youth-related programs, less than .01% was allocated to programs specifically designed to minimize racial disparities. The ACLU documented these shortcomings and disparities in a report entitled Disproportionate Minority Confinement in Massachusetts: Failures in Assessing and Addressing Overrepresentation of Minorities in the Massachusetts' Juvenile Justice System. Since the release of this report, the ACLU has engaged in numerous forums and dialogues with government officials, law enforcement officials, community members, academics and others to address the problem of disproportionate minority contact and its impact on Massachusetts' communities of color.
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Racial Justice
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Press Releases
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ACLU Asks Court to Find RI Police in Contempt for Failing to Comply with State's "Driving While Black" Law (09/23/2002)
PROVIDENCE, RI --The American Civil Liberties Union of Rhode Island today asked a Superior Court judge to hold the police department in contempt for failing to comply with the state's ""Driving while Black"" law aimed at preventing racial profiling.
ACLU Sues AMC Theaters for Ejecting Afghan American College Students from a Movie Theater (08/29/2002)
LOS ANGELES -- The American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California and the law firm of Ross, Dixon & Bell today filed a federal civil rights lawsuit on behalf of two American college students of Afghan descent who were ejected from an AMC movie theater in an Orange County mall for ""speaking in a foreign tongue"" and looking ""suspicious.""
Racist Owners of Swim Club Barred "Black" and "Brown-Skinned" Visitors, ACLU of NJ Charges (08/22/2002)
NEWARK, NJ-Owners of a swim club in suburban Nutley violated state discrimination laws when they turned away "black" and "brown-skinned" customers and guests, the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey charged today in a lawsuit filed on behalf of a group of parents and their children.
ACLU of PA Secures Settlement for NJ Turnpike Racial Profiling Victims (08/20/2002)
PHILADELPHIA -- The American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania and cooperating law firms today ended a three-year racial profiling legal battle with the New Jersey State Police by securing a $250,000 settlement for three African-American motorists.
Trade Bill Lets Customs Service Use Racial Profiling; Makes it Next to Impossible to Sue Agents Who Abuse Traveling Public (08/01/2002)
""The Customs Service has a notoriously bad history of racially biased law enforcement,"" said Rachel King, an ACLU Legislative Counsel. ""Yet Congress, in a remarkable feat of irrationality, seems to think it wise to pass legislation that would allow Customs agents to operate illegally and engage in racial profiling with impunity.""
ACLU Highlights Steps Needed to Ensure Fair Housing Practices (06/25/2002)
WASHINGTON - Testifying before a joint meeting of two House subcommittees, the American Civil Liberties Union today highlighted a number of concrete steps that it says the Department of Housing and Urban Development should take to reestablish its leadership in promoting fair housing practices and combating urban segregation.
ACLU, ADC and Relman Law Firm Sue Four Major Airlines Over Discrimination Against Passengers (06/04/2002)
NEW YORK--Five sweeping civil rights lawsuits filed across the country today accuse American, Continental, Northwest and United Airlines of blatant discrimination against five men who were ejected from flights based on the prejudices of airline employees and passengers and for reasons wholly unrelated to security.
ACLU Sues Four Major Airlines Over Discrimination Against Passengers (06/04/2002)
NEW YORK--Today's five lawsuits against four major airlines challenge the removal of five men from their respective flights. The lawsuits allege that the removals constituted illegal discrimination in violation of 42 U.S.C. § 1981 of the Civil Rights Act of 1866, and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
ACLU Urges Congress to Ensure Full Enforcement of Civil Rights Laws (05/21/2002)
WASHINGTON - Concerned with reports that the Department of Justice may be failing to fully enforce U.S. civil rights laws, the American Civil Liberties Union today urged the Senate Judiciary Committee to use its oversight function to ensure that the Department fully comply with its responsibility to protect Americans from discrimination.
Three Students Charge Illinois State Police with Racial Profiling in Vehicle Stop (05/08/2002)
PEORIA, IL--What should have been a routine traffic stop in November 2000 degenerated into an unlawful detention and search of three African American high school students in which a state trooper uttered a racial slur, according to a federal lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois today.
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