On Sunday mornings across America, many Black pastors stand behind pulpits carrying far more than sermon notes. Some are preaching only days after burying another teenager lost to gun violence. Some are trying to comfort congregations anxious about layoffs, housing…
Coalition says Trump admin allows lenders to discriminate
A coalition of consumer protection groups filed a federal lawsuit to stop implementation of a new rule that would dismantle decades of safeguards against discrimination in lending practices. The rule issued by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau would weaken the…
SPLC pleads not guilty to feds’ fraud charges
The Southern Poverty Law Center pleaded not guilty to 11 fraud-related charges and is tentatively set to face trial Oct. 5 in an Alabama federal court. SPLC Interim President Bryan Fair entered the plea May 7 to the indictment handed…
SPLC fights back claiming Blanche lied to grand jury
The Southern Poverty Law Center filed two motions in federal court in response to a federal indictment accusing the civil rights organization of fraud. The U.S. Department of Justice claims the group, which tracks and reports on hate groups, misled…
She’s not a Muslim, but she’s working to defend them in Oklahoma
Going to work for the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Oklahoma was a natural fit for civil rights attorney Veronica Laizure, despite the fact she isn’t Muslim. “I consider it sort of an adoptive community to myself as a nonreligious…
We’ve lost one more person who could say, ‘I was there’
On Friday, our nation bid its final farewell to a Civil Rights icon. As thousands of mourners poured into House of Hope Baptist Church in Chicago to remember Jesse Jackson Sr., I was reminded of my own powerful moment with a…
‘If you want to honor my father, then do what he did’
“If you want to honor my father, then do what he did,” Jonathan L. Jackson told the opening session of the Samuel DeWitt Proctor Conference in Chicago Feb. 23. The son of Civil Rights leader Jesse Jackson brought the crowd…
Letitia James: ‘We’ve got the law and righteousness on our side’
“There’s more of us than there are of them, and we’ve got the law on our side and righteousness on our side,” New York Attorney General Letitia James told about 500 people gathered for a symposium on saving American democracy…
Administration concedes defeat in removing DEI from schools
The Trump administration has conceded defeat in its effort to force public school districts to abandon civil rights protections and diversity, equity and inclusion programs that benefit students. The victory came Jan. 21 when the U.S. Department of Education filed…
Too many Black churches have stopped doing the work
Since its inception, the Black Church has stood for activism. It has been loud when the world demanded silence. Emotive in a culture that prizes stoicism over vulnerability. Communal in the face of capitalism’s insistence on individualism. Faithful amid unrelenting…
The Baptist roots of Martin Luther King Jr.
“In the quiet recesses of my heart, I am fundamentally a clergyman, a Baptist preacher.” Martin Luther King Jr. had a dream. That dream, however, has no hope of being understood apart from King’s Baptist identity. The son of…
What the birthright debate reveals about race, wealth and belonging
In spring 2026, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments from President Donald Trump regarding his pursuit to end birthright citizenship. On the surface this decision, if passed, raises questions about the future of American citizenship, including how citizenship will…