MetaFilter posts tagged with CivilRights and rights

US Military Cuts And A Step Towards Equality

zarq — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 10:00:55 -0800

Yesterday, US President Obama signed a $680bn military policy bill, which cuts military spending, including $2bn in funding for new F-22 fighter jets. However, the bill also contained the first major piece of federal gay rights legislation, and fulfilled an Obama campaign promise: acts of violence against gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people have now been added to the list of federal hate crimes.

“…If you stand up straight, people can’t ride your back. And that’s what we did. We stood up straight.”

univac — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 00:00:30 -0800

When Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated April 4, 1968, he was helping sanitation workers in Memphis form a union. In 1967, SCLC initiated the Poor People's Campaign to unify the African-American civil rights movement with working people's movements more generally. In MLK's words, "It must not be just black people, it must be all poor people. We must include American Indians, Puerto Ricans, Mexicans, and even poor whites." The campaign brought him to Memphis in 1968 to rally with striking sanitation workers. A movement of clergy & community activists had grown in support of the strikers after two workers died on the job. After King's death, the workers won recognition of their union, AFSCME Local 1733, as well as a collective bargaining agreement containing wage increases, a grievance procedure, and improvements to outdated & dangerous equipment. In 1968, union membership in the United States was at 29.4 % of the workforce. Since then, the country's election of a black president has prompted suggestions that King's dream has been fulfilled, while union membership has decreased to under 13%.

civil unions? marriage?

amberglow — Wed, 25 Oct 2006 12:26:33 -0800

NJ says yes to same-sex marriage! (altho it might not be called that in the end) -- link to pdf of ruling here.

Still, neither Nixon nor Reagan changed the division's procedures for hiring career staff

amberglow — Sun, 23 Jul 2006 12:53:17 -0800

"If anything, a civil rights background is considered a liability." Meet the politically-appointed career staffers of the Justice Dept.'s Civil Rights Division: ... the kinds of cases the Civil Rights Division is bringing have undergone a shift. The division is bringing fewer voting rights and employment cases involving systematic discrimination against African-Americans, and more alleging reverse discrimination against whites and religious discrimination against Christians. ... Thorough Boston Globe article on how the administration disbanded the hiring committee in 2002 to appoint lawyers with a very different vision of what civil rights are, and the ensuring and ongoing results.

by sitting she stood up.

amberglow — Mon, 24 Oct 2005 19:05:51 -0800

Rosa Parks, RIP

Taking the Long View

Sidhedevil — Thu, 04 Nov 2004 11:42:36 -0800

Only in 1967 did Loving v. Virginia overturn vigorously-enforced laws against interracial marriage in these 15 states--Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and West Virginia. Only in 1964 did the Civil Rights Act overturn laws against equal access to voting, public accommodation, and public education. Only in 1963 did the Equal Pay Act mandate that men and women be paid the same wage for the same work at the same job. History isn't a superhighway, leading us in straight lines toward utopia. We fall back and we move forward, but over the past fifty years, the United States has become considerably more inclusive and equality of access to opportunity has widened. Take a look at this article from the Atlantic Monthly in 1956--1956!--if you don't believe me.

Carol Anne — Mon, 21 Jan 2002 09:14:08 -0800

Thank Mahalia Jackson for King's "I have a dream." "On August 28, 1963, under a nearly cloudless sky, more than 250,000 people, a fifth of them white, gathered near the Lincoln Memorial in Washington to rally for 'jobs and freedom.'... Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had originally prepared a short and somewhat formal recitation of the sufferings of African Americans attempting to realize their freedom in a society chained by discrimination. He was about to sit down when gospel singer Mahalia Jackson called out, 'Tell them about your dream, Martin! Tell them about the dream!' Encouraged by shouts from the audience, King drew upon some of his past talks, and the result became the landmark statement of civil rights in America--a dream of all people, of all races and colors and backgrounds, sharing in an America marked by freedom and democracy."