Home : Racial Justice

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"

Audio: Human Rights Program Staff Attorney Chandra Bhatnagar talks about the CERD report with Tavis Smiley

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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 >> Report: A Bond Forged in Struggle 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

ACLU Letter to the Senate Urging A Yes Vote on H.R. 2831, The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2007 (04/21/2008)

Coalition Letter to the Transportation Security Administration Urging the Auditing of Racial Profiling Abuses (04/04/2008)

ACLU Letter to Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Leadership in Support of Fair Pay Restoration Act (01/22/2008)
On behalf of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), and its hundreds of thousands of members, activists, and fifty-three affiliates nationwide, we thank the Committee for holding a hearing on S. 1843, the “Fair Pay Restoration Act.” S. 1843, whose companion measure, H.R. 2831, passed the House of Representatives July 31, 2007, is necessary to ensure that victims of workplace discrimination receive effective remedies. We urge the Committee to support S. 1843 in order to fix a recent Supreme Court decision that undermines protections against discrimination in compensation that have been bedrock principles of civil rights laws for decades.

The ACLU Urges Members of Congress to Co-Sponsor and Support the End Racial Profiling Act of 2007 (01/16/2008)
On behalf of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), a non-partisan organization with hundreds of thousands of activists, members and 53 affiliates nationwide, we strongly urge you to co-sponsor the End Racial Profiling Act of 2007 (ERPA). Senator Russ Feingold (D-WI) and Representative John Conyers (D-MI) will introduce ERPA on Wednesday, December 12th and we encourage you to sign on to the bill as an original co-sponsor.

ACLU Letter to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights Asking for its Return to its Historical Role (12/17/2007)
Thank you for your letter dated October 22, 2007 to Nadine Strossen seeking the ACLU’s input into your project planning process for fiscal year 2010. We commend your commitment to strengthen your work products by reaching out to a variety of external groups. However, we have grown increasingly concerned with the politicization of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights as demonstrated by a shift from its historic mission of vigorously investigating and reporting on civil rights abuses against minority and disenfranchised communities, to a new mission, which has called into question programs designed to ameliorate the historic effects of discrimination.

ACLU Backgrounder on English Only Policies in Congress (12/10/2007)
In 2006 the Senate took up an amendment to make English the national language in connection with the Comprehensive Immigration Reform (“CIR”) Act. The amendment, offered by Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK), passed the Senate by a vote of 62 to 35. This amendment was substantially diluted by the subsequent passage of an alternative amendment by Sen. Ken Salazar (D-CO) which declared English as the “common and unifying language of the United States.” Both amendments, largely symbolic in nature, died when the Senate failed to pass CIR. Similar amendments were introduced and passed in the 2007 version of the CIR, which also failed to become law. Nonetheless, the fact that nearly two-thirds of the Senate voted to make English the national language illustrates the intense, and unfortunately misguided, fervor surrounding the English-only debate.

Letter from the ACLU Asking the House Committee on Education and Labor to Oppose Any Discriminatory Amendment to the College Opportunity and Affordability Act that Could Force Accreditation of Universities that Engage in Discrimination (11/14/2007)

Written Testimony of Janet Caldero for Department of Justice Civil Rights Division Oversight Hearing Before the House Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties of the House Judiciary Committee (09/25/2007)

ACLU Letter to Vote Yes on the Ledbetter Fair Pay Act (07/26/2007)

Ensure a Full and Accurate Census Count (07/23/2007)

ACLU Letter to Senators Leahy and Specter Regarding the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice (06/21/2007)

ACLU Letter to Congress Urging Co-Sponsorship and Support of End Racial Profiling Act of 2007 (06/20/2007)

ACLU Letter to Representatives Nadler and Franks Exploring the Current State of Civil Rights Enforcement within the Department of Justice (03/22/2007)
Dear Representatives Nadler and Franks: On behalf of the American Civil Liberties Union, a non-partisan organization with hundreds of thousands of activists and members and 53 affiliates nationwide, we write to express our serious concerns about the Department of Justice’s (“DOJ”) enforcement of civil rights laws under the Bush Administration. The Department of Justice is the nation’s largest law enforcement agency and DOJ’s Civil Rights Division could be considered the nation’s largest civil rights legal organization. It should bring great power and resources to bear in defense of America’s most vulnerable. It wields the authority and resources of the federal government on difficult and complex issues and has helped bring about some of the greatest global advances for civil rights. However, DOJ’s record under the Bush administration shows it is not living up to this critical mission. The Civil Rights Division has avoided challenging cases that could yield significant rulings and advance civil rights.