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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 Files Racial Discrimination Lawsuit Against Virginia Beach Nightspot Over Hair Policy (01/18/2007)
VIRGINIA BEACH, VA - The American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia filed a lawsuit today against Barry Davis, owner of the Kokoamos Island Bar, Grill and Yacht Club, challenging a policy that prohibits persons wearing braids, twists, cornrows or dreadlocks from entering the Virginia Beach nightspot. According to papers filed in federal court, the policy discriminates on the basis of race because it targets hairstyles predominately worn by African Americans.
ACLU Files Racial Profiling Lawsuit Against Rhode Island State Police (01/08/2007)
PROVIDENCE, RI - In a federal lawsuit filed today, the American Civil Liberties Union of Rhode Island charged that state police engaged in racial profiling and acted unconstitutionally when they detained 14 people on Interstate 95 and transferred them to immigration officials. The individuals, all Guatemalans, were stopped in a van after the driver changed lanes without using a turn signal.
NYCLU Urges Spitzer to Implement School-Based Reform, End School Segregation (01/04/2007)
NEW YORK - After Governor Eliot Spitzer pledged yesterday to spend billions more dollars on education for New York State children, the New York Civil Liberties Union today urged the new governor to focus not only on funding but also on implementing school-based reform. Statewide school-based reform will tailor remedial measures to failing schools' specific deficiencies, and decrease persistent racial inequality in the education system, said the NYCLU.
U.S. Citizen Asks Federal Court to Insure Safe Passage For His Family Back from Canada (12/21/2006)
CHICAGO - The American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois today asked a federal judge to help ensure a safe, uneventful trip across the U.S.-Canadian border for a suburban Chicago father and U.S. citizen when he, his wife and young children travel next week.
ACLU, NAACP File Lawsuit to Allow University of Michigan Admissions Programs to Continue (12/19/2006)
DETROIT - Filing a lawsuit today on behalf of 19 students, faculty and applicants to the University of Michigan, a coalition of civil rights groups including the American Civil Liberties Union and the NAACP, are asking a federal court to declare that the newly passed Proposal 2 has not changed the Supreme Court’s view, stated as recently as 2003, that it is constitutionally permissible for universities to consider race and gender as one factor among many in university admissions.
ACLU of West Virginia Praises Government Reinstatement of Iranian Couple (12/18/2006)
MORGANTOWN, WV - The American Civil Liberties Union of West Virginia today announced that is has reached an agreement with the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) to reinstate an Iranian Muslim couple who had been unjustly terminated from their positions at NIOSH for undefined “security” reasons. Aliakbar and Shahla Afshari will receive back pay and benefits as well as damages to compensate them for the loss of income, humiliation, and emotional distress they suffered as a result of the terminations.
In Wake of Bell Shooting, NYCLU Protests NYPD Failure to Comply with Racial Profiling Reform Mandated After Diallo Shooting (11/29/2006)
NEW YORK - In light of rekindled debates about race and policing after the Sean Bell shooting, the New York Civil Liberties Union today protested the New York Police Department’s failure to comply with a city law enacted in the aftermath of the 1999 Amadou Diallo police shooting to address concerns about racial profiling.
ACLU of Louisiana Challenges Discriminatory Parade Fees (11/16/2006)
NEW ORLEANS - The American Civil Liberties Union of Louisiana announced today the filing of a federal lawsuit to challenge excessive escort fees applied to Social Aid and Pleasure Clubs and second-line parade groups in New Orleans.
NYCLU Decries Midwood Hate Crime, Cites Need for Reforms (11/06/2006)
NEW YORK - The New York Civil Liberties Union today expressed dismay over the vicious bias assault perpetrated against a young Pakistani man in the Midwood section of Brooklyn last Sunday, October 29.
The African American Policy Forum Teams with the Michael Eric Dyson Show for a Groundbreaking Radio Series (11/02/2006)
DETROIT -- As Michigan counts down to the November 7 vote on whether to end affirmative action in the state, Kimberle Crenshaw, Executive Director of the African American Policy Forum and Professor of Law at University of California Los Angeles and Columbia University and American Civil Liberties Union Ira Glasser Racial Justice Fellow has inaugurated a 13-part radio series on the Michael Eric Dyson Show. In this unprecedented series, entitled "13 Myths About Affirmative Action: A Special Series on a Public Policy Under Seige" Professor Crenshaw and a bevy of guests will join host Michael Eric Dyson to cut through the jargon surrounding this hot-button issue and get beyond the myths associated with it to help to educate voters about affirmative action and Proposition 2.
ACLU Tells Virginia Beach Bar to Rescind Racially Discriminatory Hair Policy or Face Legal Action (10/05/2006)
VIRGINIA BEACH, VA -- In a letter sent today to Barry Taylor, the owner of Kokoamos Island Bar, Grill and Yacht Club, the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia demanded that the Virginia Beach nightspot rescind a policy of barring hairstyles worn almost exclusively by African-American patrons.
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