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Democracy Now! stories, posts and pages that relate to Civil Rights

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  • John-lewis

    Rep. John Lewis on Congress After GOP Victory, Closing Gitmo, Afghan War and Ethics Conviction of Charles Rangel

    U.S. Representative John Lewis (D-Georgia) joins us to talk about the shifting political landscape following the Republican gains in the midterm elections, the Obama administration’s abandonment of its pledge to close Guantánamo Bay, the Afghanistan war, and the conviction of Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY) on congressional ethics charges. [includes rush transcript]
    Nov 17, 2010 | Story
  • Wilkerson

    "The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration": Isabel Wilkerson Tracks Exodus of Blacks from US South

    We turn now to a pivotal but largely overlooked event in US history, the mass migration of millions of African Americans from the South during the period of the Great Migration, which began in the 1910s and continued to the 1970s. Award-winning journalist and professor Isabel Wilkerson has spent the last decade researching why millions of African Americans decided to leave the towns and farms of the South on such a large scale for her new book,...
    Sep 29, 2010 | Story
  • Shirley_sherrod

    Shirley Sherrod, Ousted from Agriculture Department, Rejects Offer to Return

    Shirley Sherrod, ousted from her job at the Agriculture Department last month, has rejected an offer to return to the USDA. Sherrod was forced out shortly after a right-wing website ran a video clip that was deceptively edited to make it appear that she was racist toward white farmers. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack forced Sherrod to resign shortly after the video was posted. Vilsack met with Sherrod Tuesday morning to try and convince her...
    Aug 25, 2010 | Story

  • "Mosque-Issippi Burning." By Amy Goodman

    While the hole at Ground Zero has yet to be filled, as billionaire developers bicker over the plans, the "news hole" that August brings has been readily filled with the “Ground Zero Mosque” controversy.
    Aug 18, 2010 | Columns & Articles

  • "Why Did Obama Fire Dan Choi?." By Amy Goodman

    Dan Choi was an Iraq War veteran, a graduate of West Point and a trained Arabic linguist. I ran into Choi the day after he received his official discharge for violating the military’s so-called "Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell" policy.
    Aug 04, 2010 | Columns & Articles
  • Sherrod

    Jesse Jackson Calls Shirley Sherrod a "True Freedom Fighter" Who Fought Back Against "Attempted Character Assassination"

    Two days after Shirley Sherrod was fired from her job at the Agriculture Department over allegedly racist comments she made in a selectively excerpted internet video posted by Tea Party activist Andrew Breitbart, Sherrod has received an apology from both the White House and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. Sherrod used to oversee rural development in Georgia, and Vilsack offered her another unspecified position within the department. Sherrod...
    Jul 22, 2010 | Story
  • Rand-paul-civilrights

    GOP Senate Nominee Rand Paul of Kentucky Faces Firestorm After Suggesting Opposition to Civil Rights Act

    Rand Paul, the Republican Senate nominee from Kentucky, is scrambling to tamp down a growing firestorm over comments he made suggesting he does not favor portions of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Americans with Disabilities Act.
    We’re joined by North Carolina State University professor Blair Kelley, author of Right to Ride: Streetcar Boycotts and African American Citizenship in the Era of Plessy v. Ferguson, and Mike Ervin, a freelance...
    May 21, 2010 | Story
  • Stormyweather

    Pioneering African American Actress, Singer and Civil Rights Activist Lena Horne, 92, Dies

    Lena Horne enjoyed a six-decade singing career on stage, television and in film. She was the first black woman to be signed to a long-term contract by a major Hollywood studio. She helped break racial boundaries by acting alongside white entertainers, but she was segregated on screen so producers could clip out her singing when the movies ran in the South. In the 1950s, she was blacklisted in part because of her friendship with Paul Robeson and...
    May 11, 2010 | Story
  • Dorothyheight

    Dorothy Height (1912-2010): Civil Rights Leader Remembered for Lifelong Activism

    President Obama, First Lady Michelle Obama, along with hundreds of mourners, packed into the National Cathedral in Washington, DC on Thursday to attend the funeral of civil rights and women’s rights leader Dorothy Height. She died last week at the age of ninety-eight. We speak with Stanford University professor Clayborne Carson. [includes rush transcript]
    Apr 30, 2010 | Story
  • Tavis-smiley

    As Obama Visits Afghanistan, Tavis Smiley on Rev. Martin Luther King and His Opposition to the Vietnam War

    As the President renews his commitment to expand the American military presence in Afghanistan, we turn to a man he is sometimes compared to: Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. A new special on PBS from TV host and author Tavis Smiley delves into this comparison and looks at a speech that has a particular resonance today with the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan: Dr. King’s famous antiwar speech of April 4, 1967 titled "Beyond Vietnam."...
    Mar 29, 2010 | Story