rights – Page 2 – WUVS 103.7 The Beat

60 years after the Voting Rights Act was passed, Black voters are still fighting for access: ‘So much is at stake’

In a speech before he signed the Voting Rights Act on Aug. 6, 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson said of the landmark civil rights law, “Today we strike away the last major shackle…the Negro story and the American story fuse and blend.” “The vote is the most powerful instrument ever devised by man for breaking down injustice and destroying the terrible walls which imprison men because they are different from other men today…the last of the legal barriers is tumbling,” […]

August 6, 2025

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Urban League declares a ‘state of emergency’ for civil rights in the US in response to Trump

One of the nation’s oldest civil rights organizations on Thursday declared a “state of emergency” for antidiscrimination policies, personal freedoms and Black economic advancement in response to President Donald Trump ‘s upending of civil rights precedents and the federal agencies traditionally tasked with enforcing them. The National Urban League’s annual State of Black America report accuses the federal government of being “increasingly determined to sacrifice its founding principles” and “threatening to impose a uniform education system and a homogenous workforce that sidelines […]

July 17, 2025

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Trump, in a new interview, says he doesn’t know if he backs constitutional rights

President Donald Trump, in a new interview, was circumspect about his duties to uphold due process rights laid out in the Constitution. He also said he does not think military force will be needed to make Canada the “51st state” and played down the possibility he would look to run for a third term in the White House. The comments in a wide-ranging, and at moments combative, interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press” came as the Republican president’s efforts to quickly enact his agenda face sharper […]

May 4, 2025

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Booker breaks Senate floor speech record held by segregationist who opposed Black civil rights

U.S. Senator Cory Booker, D-N.J., broke the record for the longest speech given on the Senate floor on Tuesday as he protested the first 71 days of President Donald Trump’s administration. Booker officially broke the record at 7:19 p.m. Ironically, Booker surpassed the previous record — 24 hours and 18 minutes — held by Sen. Strom Thurmond, a segregationist who used the Senate procedure known as a filibuster in an effort to block the passage of landmark civil rights legislation […]

April 1, 2025

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Black trans leaders turn to inspiration and joy amid Trump’s ‘coordinated attacks’ on transgender rights

Trans Day of Visibility is taking on new meaning for Black trans and gender-expansive Americans as they navigate the political resurgence of President Donald Trump, who has made anti-trans and anti-DEI policies major features of his administration’s agenda. Black trans and gender-expansive individuals find themselves at the intersection of communities that are being impacted after a slew of actions taken by the Trump administration, including moving to ban the existence of trans-Americans from sports, government websites, the U.S. military and […]

March 31, 2025

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This Harvard-educated civil rights lawyer was laid off from the DOE—now she’s fighting back

Sheria Smith was living her professional dream before getting laid off from the U.S. Department of Education. A Harvard graduate who’d helped children as a teacher before becoming a lawyer, Smith pursued public service over fancy, high-paid corporate positions early in her career so she could give back. That clarity of purpose led her to the DOE in 2016 to accept a position as a civil rights attorney. “It was really important to me that Black students, students like me, […]

March 20, 2025

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60 years after ‘Bloody Sunday,’ leaders say voting rights and racial equality have declined

Civil rights leaders and elected officials commemorated on Friday the 60th anniversary of “Bloody Sunday,” the day voting and civil rights activists were violently beaten and injured by law enforcement officers on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama while protesting the right to vote for Black Americans in the Jim Crow South. The bloody images of that day shared around the world helped to contribute to the larger movement’s achievement of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, marking a […]

March 7, 2025

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Civil rights groups sue Trump over ‘malicious’ and ‘unlawful’ anti-DEI, LGBTQ orders

A coalition of civil and human rights groups is hitting back at President Donald Trump and his administration over executive orders barring diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility funding and LGBTQ-related health care. The Legal Defense Fund and Lambda Legal are representing the nonprofit advocacy organizations — National Urban League, the National Fair Housing Alliance, and the AIDS Foundation of Chicago — in a legal challenge to three of Trump’s anti-equity executive orders. The orders call for a range of actions […]

February 19, 2025

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Civil rights groups warn of FBI’s past abuses of Black leaders in opposing Trump nominee Kash Patel

As President Donald Trump‘s nominee for FBI director, Kash Patel, gets grilled by the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday for his confirmation hearing, civil rights groups are sounding the alarm about his qualifications and warning of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s past abuses against Black leaders and other citizens. In a letter addressed to Committee Chairman Senator Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Ranking Member Senator Dick Durbin, D-Ill., more than fifty civil rights and advocacy groups urged the committee to oppose […]

January 31, 2025