Civil Rights Topics

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

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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
"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
45 Years Later, Former Alabama State Trooper Pleads Guilty to Killing Black Civil Rights Worker Jimmie Lee Jackson

A white former Alabama state trooper has pleaded guilty to killing a black civil rights worker 45 years ago at the height of the civil rights movement. Seventy-seven-year-old James Bonard Fowler was sentenced to six months in prison for the 1965 shooting of 26-year-old Jimmie Lee Jackson during a melee in a restaurant in Marion, Alabama. We speak to John Fleming, the reporter to whom Fowler first confessed, and Democratic Congress member John...
Nov 17, 2010 | Story
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
"Barbour is an Unreconstructed Southerner": Prof. John Dittmer on Mississippi Governor's Praise of White Citizens’ Councils

Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour is facing a national controversy for praising the role of the White Citizens’ Councils, which opposed racial integration in the 1950s and 1960s. In addition, Barbour recalled the civil rights struggle in his hometown, Yazoo City, Mississippi, saying, "I just don’t remember it as being that bad." We speak with John Dittmer, Professor Emeritus of History at DePauw University in Indiana. [includes...
Dec 22, 2010 | Story
SPECIAL: Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in His Own Words

Today is the federal holiday that honors Dr. Martin Luther King. He was born January 15th, 1929. He was assassinated April 4, 1968, at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. He was just 39 years old. While Dr. King is primarily remembered as a civil rights leader, he also championed the cause of the poor and organized the Poor People’s Campaign to address issues of economic justice. Dr. King was also a fierce critic of U.S. foreign policy...
Jan 17, 2011 | Story
DN! EXCLUSIVE: Authorities Search and Copy U.S. Journalist’s Notes, Computer and Cameras After Returning from Haiti

Independent journalist Brandon Jourdan recently returned from Haiti after being on assignment documenting the rebuilding of schools in the earthquake-devastated country. However, when he returned to the United States, he was immediately detained after deboarding the plane by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. He was questioned about his travels and had all of his documents, computer, phone and camera flash drives searched and copied....
Feb 15, 2011 | Story
African American Historian Manning Marable Dies Days Before Publication of His Biography of Malcolm X

Renowned African American historian Manning Marable passed away on Friday at the age of 60, just days before the publication of his life’s work, a monumental biography about Malcolm X. Two decades in the making, Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention is described as a reevaluation of Malcolm X’s life. We play excerpts from when Amy Goodman interviewed Marable in 2005 and 2007 about the chapters missing from Malcolm X’s autobiography and the groups...
Apr 04, 2011 | Story
“Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention”: Manning Marable’s New Biography Investigates Conflicted Reality of the Civil Rights Leader

Two decades in the making, Manning Marable’s nearly 600-page biography, Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention, is described as a reevaluation of Malcolm X’s life, providing new insights into the circumstances of his assassination, as well as raising questions about Malcolm X’s autobiography. Manning passed away on Friday, just days before his life’s work was published. To discuss his legacy, we’re joined by Michael Eric Dyson, sociology professor...
Apr 04, 2011 | Story
Georgia Set to Enact First Arizona Copycat Anti-Immigrant Bill

Georgia is set to become the first state since Arizona to empower local and state police to demand documentation of residency and to detain people they suspect are in the country without permission. Last Thursday, Georgia lawmakers passed a bill modeled on Arizona’s controversial SB 1070, known by critics as the "show me your papers" law. Georgia’s first-term Republican governor, Nathan Deal, campaigned on passing the bill...
Apr 18, 2011 | Story