Some people in our country argue that systemic racism isn’t real—that it happened in the past, during slavery and Jim Crow, but that it doesn’t exist today. Yet earlier this month, the National Football League (NFL) confessed to a practice of systemic racism in determining awards for injuries suffered while playing. This practice has been…

This past Wednesday, Congress voted overwhelmingly to establish Juneteenth as a federal holiday, marking the day—June 19th, 1865—when Union Army General Gordon Granger and his troops advanced into the remote, former confederate territory of Galveston, Texas and announced that slavery was officially over in the United States. “The people of Texas are informed that in…

The cover of the August 18, 2019 New York Times magazine bears this quote: In August of 1619, a ship appeared on this horizon, near Pont Comfort, a costal port in the British colony of Virginia. It carried more than 20 enslaved Africans, who were sold to the colonists. American was not yet America, but this was…

Today, felon disenfranchisement laws continue to impose on the civil rights of felons – America’s most disadvantaged group. To be ‘franchised’ is to have the right to vote. This basic civil right is central to any democratic nation and essential to the fundamental principles of democracy. It’s how we – the people – exercise our power through…