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

Opponents of Equal Opportunity Seek To Withdraw Their Own Ballot Measure (04/08/2008)
NEW YORK - In a significant blow to a national campaign against equal opportunity in America, backers of a proposed amendment to the Oklahoma Constitution that would end equal access and opportunity programs in the state have asked the state supreme court to withdraw the measure from consideration. The move comes after supporters of the so-called Oklahoma Civil Rights Initiative - spearheaded by Ward Connerly's American Civil Rights Institute (ACRI) as part of a national crusade against affirmative action - failed to collect the signatures needed to get the proposal on this November's ballot. In conceding defeat, Connerly characterized the ACRI's efforts in Oklahoma as a "miscalculation."

ACLU And Civil Rights Lawyers Strike Agreement To Desegregate Hartford Public Schools (04/04/2008)
HARTFORD - The American Civil Liberties Union, the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF), the Center for Children’s Advocacy and cooperating attorneys struck an agreement today with the state of Connecticut to implement compliance with a longstanding order from the state Supreme Court to desegregate Hartford public schools. The agreement, the latest stage in the case of Sheff v. O’Neill, for the first time requires the state to create a detailed roadmap to follow in its effort to end the racial segregation faced by Hartford’s minority schoolchildren.

Landmark Settlement Reached With Maryland State Police In "Driving While Black" Case (04/02/2008)
BALTIMORE -- After more than a decade of fighting for justice on behalf of individuals who were racially profiled on Interstate 95 in Maryland, the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Maryland, and the law firm of Hogan & Hartson, LLP are pleased to announce that a landmark settlement has been reached today with the Maryland State Police (MSP) to end the "Driving While Black" lawsuit. The agreement provides substantial damages to the individual plaintiffs, a requirement that the MSP retain an independent consultant to assess its progress towards eliminating the practice of racial profiling, and a joint statement by all parties involved in the lawsuit condemning racial profiling and highlighting the importance of taking preventative action against this practice in the future.

Dismal High School Graduation Rates Violate Florida Constitution, Says ACLU Lawsuit (03/18/2008)
WEST PALM BEACH, FL -- Charging that shamefully low high school graduation rates demonstrate a violation of students’ constitutional right to a high quality education, the American Civil Liberties Union filed a first-of-its-kind class action lawsuit today against the Palm Beach County School District. It is estimated that as many as one in three Palm Beach County students does not graduate on time with a regular diploma, a figure that is well below both the state and national averages. This case is the first legal challenge in the country that focuses on the issue of low graduation rates and that requires a school district to graduate more of its students.

ACLU Sues Over Failed Privately-Run Alternative School In Atlanta (03/11/2008)
ATLANTA – In a case with national implications, the American Civil Liberties Union and ACLU of Georgia filed a class action lawsuit today against the Atlanta Independent School System (AISS) and Community Education Partners (CEP) for violating students’ constitutional right to an adequate public education. CEP is a for-profit corporation paid nearly $7 million a year by the city to run its alternative school, which is among the most dangerous and lowest performing schools in Georgia.

ACLU of Oklahoma Challenges Anti-Civil Rights Ballot Measure (03/07/2008)
OKLAHOMA CITY - Oklahoma voters filed a protest today before the state Supreme Court challenging irregularities and questionable practices in the collection of signatures by the so-called Oklahoma Civil Rights Initiative. The initiative is one of a series of anti-affirmative action ballot measures that California businessman Ward Connerly and his organization known as the American Civil Rights Institute (ACRI) have spearheaded across the country.

Charges Dismissed Against Reporter Who Was Victim of NYPD Racial Profiling as Figures Show Hundreds of Thousands of Innocent Black New Yorkers Were Stopped-and-Frisked in 2007 (02/13/2008)
NEW YORK – A Bronx Criminal Court judge has dismissed charges against a black New York Post reporter who was the victim of racial profiling by NYPD officers. The dismissal came on the same day that the NYPD quietly released figures showing that police made nearly half a million stops in 2007, most of which were of black and Latino New Yorkers.

Nightspot with Racially Discriminatory Policy Settles Case with DOJ; ACLU Lawsuit Pending (02/12/2008)
Virginia Beach, VA—The Department of Justice announced today that it has reached a settlement resolving allegations of racial discrimination against the owner of Kokoamos Island Bar, Grill and Yacht Club in Virginia Beach. Kokoamos at one point banned patrons who wore braids, twists, cornrows, or dreadlocks.

ACLU of North Carolina Files “Friend of the Court” Brief in Case Where Police Shot Hispanic Homeowner After Search Based on Racial Profiling (02/05/2008)
RALEIGH – The American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina Legal Foundation (ACLU-NCLF) filed an amicus (“friend of the court”) brief last week in the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, in a case where police officers admitted under oath that while trying to locate a man named Rudelfo Gonzales who had escaped from his probation officers, Clayton police officers searched the property surrounding the home of Manuel Peña, an Hispanic man, in part because he happened to be Hispanic.

ACLU Calls Civil Rights Act of 2008 Vital to Restoring Equal Protection Under the Law (01/25/2008)
Washington, DC – The American Civil Liberties Union cheers the introduction of S. 2554, the “Civil Rights Act of 2008” by Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA). The companion bill, H.R. 5129, was introduced in the House of Representatives by Rep. John Lewis (D-GA) on January 23, 2008.