The Department of Justice issued a final rule eliminating disparate impact liability from Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, ending five decades of civil rights protections that allowed enforcement against policies producing racially discriminatory outcomes without proof of discriminatory …
Pam BondiHarmeet DhillonDepartment of Justicecivil-rightsdojlegaldiscriminationregulation+6 more
On Thanksgiving Day, November 28, 2025, President Donald Trump announced on Truth Social his intention to “permanently pause migration from all Third World Countries” in response to the National Guard shooting two days earlier. The announcement, using terminology widely considered …
Donald TrumpJoseph EdlowDepartment of Homeland SecurityUSCISCouncil on American-Islamic Relations+2 moreimmigrationracismcivil-rightsexecutive-powerrefugees+5 more
Federal Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong issued a landmark ruling ordering the Trump administration to stop indiscriminate immigration sweeps in Southern California. The ruling came after the ACLU brought a case alleging unconstitutional arrests and denial of attorney access. The judge found …
Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah FrimpongImmigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)Department of Homeland SecurityU.S. District Court Central District of CaliforniaACLU of Southern Californiaimmigration-enforcementicejudicial-interventionracial-profilingconstitutional-violation+4 more
In a 6-3 decision in DHS v. D.V.D., the Supreme Court allowed DHS to deport immigrants to “third countries”—nations they’re not from—without meaningful opportunity to contest deportation. The ruling stayed a Massachusetts district court order that had required 15 days notice and …
Supreme CourtDepartment of Homeland SecuritySonia Sotomayorsupreme-courtdeportationdue-processimmigrationcivil-rights
Trump’s Justice Department leadership ordered a complete freeze on all Civil Rights Division litigation and enforcement activities through internal memos sent by Chief of Staff Chad Mizelle to acting division head Kathleen Wolfe. The memos prohibited attorneys from filing “any new …
Department of JusticeChad MizelleKathleen Wolfe (Acting Civil Rights Division Head)Donald TrumpHarmeet Dhillondoj-weaponizationcivil-rightsvoting-rightspolice-accountabilitycivil-rights-division+3 more
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson announces the city is terminating its contract with ShotSpotter, the controversial gunshot detection technology company, bringing to an end one of the largest and longest-running deployments of acoustic surveillance in American policing. The contract will expire on …
Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that the First Amendment’s Free Speech Clause prohibits states from enforcing anti-discrimination laws against businesses providing “expressive” services when doing so would compel speech that violates the owner’s religious beliefs. Justice Gorsuch …
Supreme CourtJustice Neil GorsuchChief Justice John RobertsJustice Clarence ThomasJustice Samuel Alito+11 moresupreme-courtjudicial-capturelgbtq-rightsreligious-rightcivil-rights+2 more
Supreme Court ruled 6-3 (Harvard) and 6-2 (UNC) that race-conscious admissions policies at Harvard and University of North Carolina violate the Equal Protection Clause, effectively ending affirmative action in higher education nationwide. Chief Justice Roberts authored the majority opinion, joined …
Supreme CourtChief Justice John RobertsJustice Clarence ThomasJustice Samuel AlitoJustice Neil Gorsuch+11 moresupreme-courtjudicial-capturecivil-rightseducationracial-justice+1 more
The reliability and accuracy of ShotSpotter’s gunshot detection technology face a major crisis in August 2021 as the Chicago Office of Inspector General releases a damning report on the system’s effectiveness, while the Michael Williams case exposes evidence that ShotSpotter analysts …
ShotSpotterMichael WilliamsChicago Police Departmentsurveillancetechnologypoliceaicivil-rights+1 more
PredPol, the controversial predictive policing software company, rebrands itself as Geolitica in 2021 as criticism of algorithmic bias in law enforcement intensifies. The rebrand represents an attempt to distance the company from growing scrutiny of predictive policing’s discriminatory impacts …
Morton County Sheriff’s Department and allied law enforcement agencies attack approximately 400 peaceful water protectors attempting to cross Backwater Bridge near the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation with water cannons, tear gas, rubber bullets, and concussion grenades in temperatures as low …
Morton County Sheriff's DepartmentStanding Rock Sioux TribeMandan Rural Fire DepartmentStanding Rock Medic and Healer CouncilEnergy Transfer Partners+3 morepolice-violenceindigenous-rightsenvironmental-justicecorporate-powerexcessive-force+2 more
The ACLU of Northern California released a report revealing that Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram had provided special data access to Geofeedia, a surveillance technology company that marketed its location-based monitoring tools to law enforcement agencies for tracking Black Lives Matter protesters …
ACLUGeofeediaTwitterFacebookInstagramsurveillancesocial-mediablack-lives-matterprotestscivil-rights+3 more
The New Orleans Police Department launches a secretive predictive policing program in partnership with Palantir Technologies, a data-mining firm founded with seed money from the CIA’s venture capital arm In-Q-Tel. The program operates without public knowledge or oversight, escaping scrutiny …
NOPDPalantir TechnologiesMitch LandrieuPeter Thielsurveillancetechnologypoliceaicivil-rights+1 more
Seven major corporations—Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Mars, Kraft Foods, McDonald’s, Wendy’s, and software maker Intuit—announced they were dropping their memberships in the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) in April 2012, along with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation ceasing new …
Color of ChangeCoca-ColaPepsiCoKraft FoodsMcDonald's+3 morealeccorporate-corruptionaccountabilitycivil-rightslegislative-capture+1 more
On June 23, 2003, the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 in Grutter v. Bollinger that the University of Michigan Law School’s race-conscious admissions policy did not violate the Equal Protection Clause, upholding the principle that diversity in higher education constitutes a compelling government …
Justice Sandra Day O'ConnorJustice Clarence ThomasUniversity of Michigan Law SchoolLee BollingerCenter for Individual Rightseducationsupreme-courtaffirmative-actioncivil-rightsdiversity
Bill Clinton stunned Jesse Jackson and the Rainbow Coalition by using a speech to the civil rights organization to attack rapper/activist Sister Souljah, comparing her to white nationalist David Duke. Sister Souljah had been quoted in The Washington Post saying, in the aftermath of the LA riots, …
Bill ClintonSister SouljahJesse JacksonRainbow CoalitionDemocratic Partyracial-politicsdog-whistle-politicspolitical-strategydemocratic-partytriangulation+1 more
Ronald Reagan opened his general election campaign at the Neshoba County Fair in Philadelphia, Mississippi—just seven miles from where Ku Klux Klan members had murdered civil rights workers James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner in 1964. In his first major speech after the Republican …
Ronald ReaganRepublican Partyracial-politicsdog-whistle-politicspolitical-strategyrepublican-partysouthern-strategy+2 more
Just three years after settling the landmark housing discrimination case with a court-supervised consent decree, the Department of Justice returned to federal court with new allegations: the Trump Organization had violated the settlement terms and continued systematic discrimination against Black …
Donald TrumpFred TrumpRoy Cohnracismhousing discriminationtrump familycivil rightsdoj
President Carter signs the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA), requiring banks to meet the credit needs of their entire communities, including low- and moderate-income neighborhoods previously redlined by lenders. The law responds to decades of documented discriminatory lending that drained deposits …
President Jimmy CarterSenator William ProxmireAmerican Bankers AssociationFederal ReserveFDIC+1 moreregulatory-responsehousing-policybanking-regulationcivil-rightshousing
After nearly two years of aggressive legal combat, Donald Trump and his father Fred Trump signed a consent decree settling the Department of Justice’s landmark housing discrimination lawsuit. The settlement included the standard legal disclaimer that it was “in no way an admission” …
Donald TrumpFred TrumpRoy Cohnracismhousing discriminationtrump familycivil rightsdoj
On July 25, 1974, the Supreme Court issued its 5-4 ruling in Milliken v. Bradley, effectively ending meaningful school desegregation efforts across metropolitan America by prohibiting cross-district busing remedies to address urban-suburban segregation. The decision exempted wealthy white suburbs …
Chief Justice Warren BurgerJustice Thurgood MarshallU.S. Supreme CourtNAACP Legal Defense FundDetroit Public Schoolseducationsupreme-courtsegregationhousing-policyjudicial-capture+2 more
The U.S. Department of Justice filed a major civil rights lawsuit against Donald Trump, his father Fred Trump, and their real estate company, Trump Management Inc., for systematic racial discrimination in housing. The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, …
Donald TrumpFred TrumpRoy Cohnracismhousing discriminationtrump familycivil rightsdoj
On March 21, 1973, the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 in San Antonio Independent School District v. Rodriguez that the Texas school finance system—which relied on local property taxes and created vast spending disparities between wealthy and poor districts—did not violate the Equal Protection Clause. The …
Justice Lewis PowellJustice Thurgood MarshallDemetrio RodriguezMexican American Legal Defense and Educational FundU.S. Supreme Courteducationsupreme-courtfunding-inequalitycivil-rightsproperty-tax+1 more
The Citizens’ Commission to Investigate the FBI burglarized an FBI office in Media, Pennsylvania, and stole classified documents that exposed COINTELPRO—the FBI’s covert and illegal program to surveil, infiltrate, discredit, and disrupt American civil rights organizations and political …
FBIJ. Edgar HooverCitizens' Commission to Investigate the FBIfbi-abusecointelprocivil-rightssurveillancedomestic-spying
On December 4, 1969, at 4:45 a.m., fourteen Chicago police officers raided the apartment of Fred Hampton, 21-year-old chairman of the Illinois Black Panther Party. Police fired between 82 and 99 shots into the apartment; the Panthers fired at most one. Hampton was shot twice in the head at …
Fred HamptonJ. Edgar HooverFBIChicago Police DepartmentCook County State's Attorney Edward Hanrahan+2 morefbi-abusecointelprocivil-rightspolice-brutalityinstitutional-corruption+1 more
President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Fair Housing Act (Title VIII of the Civil Rights Act of 1968) into law one week after Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination, prohibiting discrimination in the sale, rental, and financing of housing based on race, religion, national origin, or sex. The …
President Lyndon B. JohnsonMartin Luther King Jr.National Association of Real Estate BoardsNational Association of RealtorsHouse Rules Committeehousingcivil-rightsinstitutional-racismreal-estate-industrycorporate-opposition
On April 4, 1968, at 6:01 PM Central Standard Time, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was shot and killed while standing on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. He was 39 years old. King had traveled to Memphis to support Black sanitation workers who were striking for better pay, …
Martin Luther King Jr.James Earl RayFBIMemphis Policecivil-rightsviolenceassassinationinstitutional-racismdemocratic-erosion
On August 25, 1967, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover authorized the expansion of the Counter Intelligence Program (COINTELPRO) to create a new initiative targeting “Black Nationalist–Hate Groups.” This program represented a systematic effort by the nation’s premier law enforcement …
J. Edgar HooverFBIMartin Luther King Jr.Black Panther PartyWilliam C. Sullivansurveillancecivil-rightsfbi-abuseinstitutional-corruptiondemocratic-erosion
College students Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton found the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense in West Oakland, California, in response to systemic police brutality against African Americans. The organization emerges from the racial tensions and policing practices that plague Oakland, influenced by …
Bobby SealeHuey P. NewtonFBI Director J. Edgar HooverCalifornia State Legislaturesurveillancepolice-statecivil-rightscointelproinstitutional-repression
President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 (Hart-Celler Act) into law at the base of the Statue of Liberty, abolishing the National Origins Formula that has governed U.S. immigration policy since the 1920s. The legislation dismantles the racist quota system that …
President Lyndon B. JohnsonSenator Philip HartRepresentative Emanuel CellerSenator James EastlandSenator Samuel Ervin+1 moreimmigrationcivil-rightsinstitutional-resistancecongressional-obstruction
President Johnson signs legislation creating the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) as a Cabinet-level agency, consolidating federal housing programs under one roof. Robert C. Weaver becomes the first HUD Secretary and the first African American Cabinet member. However, HUD inherits …
President Lyndon B. JohnsonRobert C. WeaverNational Association of Home BuildersNational Association of Real Estate Boardshousing-policyinstitutional-capturecivil-rightshousing
President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Voting Rights Act of 1965 into law, outlawing discriminatory voting practices that have disenfranchised millions of African Americans since Reconstruction. The legislation passes the Senate 77-19 on May 26 and the House 333-85 on July 9, overcoming a 24-day …
President Lyndon B. JohnsonMartin Luther King Jr.John LewisSouthern Democratic SenatorsRichard Russellvoting-rightscivil-rightssouthern-strategyinstitutional-resistancevoter-suppression
On April 11, 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) at the Junction Elementary School in Stonewall, Texas, where he had attended as a child. The landmark legislation established the first comprehensive federal investment in K-12 education, …
President Lyndon B. JohnsonCongressNational Education Associationeducationcivil-rightsgreat-societyfederal-fundingpoverty
On March 11, 1965, Reverend James Reeb, a white Unitarian minister from Boston, died from injuries sustained two days earlier when he was attacked by white supremacists outside a Selma, Alabama restaurant. Reeb had answered Martin Luther King Jr.’s call for clergy to come to Selma following …
James ReebElmer CookWilliam Stanley HoggleNamon O'Neal HoggleLyndon B. Johnsoncivil-rightsviolencejudicial-failureinstitutional-racismvoting-rights
On March 7, 1965, approximately 600 voting rights activists began a march from Selma, Alabama, to the state capital of Montgomery to protest the killing of Jimmie Lee Jackson and the systematic denial of voting rights to Black citizens. Led by Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee chairman John …
John LewisHosea WilliamsAlabama State TroopersAmelia BoyntonLyndon B. Johnsoncivil-rightspolice-brutalityvoting-rightsinstitutional-racismviolence
President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1964 into law, prohibiting discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin in employment and public accommodations. The legislation passes only after defeating a 60-working-day filibuster led by the “Southern …
President Lyndon B. JohnsonSouthern Democratic SenatorsRichard RussellStrom ThurmondSouthern business interests+1 morecivil-rightsinstitutional-capturesouthern-strategycorporate-resistancevoting-rights
On June 21, 1964, three civil rights workers—James Chaney, 21, of Mississippi; Andrew Goodman, 20, of New York; and Michael Schwerner, 24, of New York—were murdered by the Ku Klux Klan with the direct participation of Neshoba County law enforcement officials. The killings, during the first week of …
James ChaneyAndrew GoodmanMichael SchwernerKu Klux KlanCecil Price+5 morecivil-rightsvoter-suppressionviolenceinstitutional-racismlaw-enforcement-complicity
On June 10, 1964, the United States Senate invoked cloture by a vote of 71 to 29, ending a 72-day filibuster against the Civil Rights Act—marking the first time in Senate history that cloture had been successfully invoked to break a filibuster on civil rights legislation. The Southern Bloc of 18 …
On October 10, 1963, Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy signed an authorization permitting the FBI to wiretap the telephones of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference offices in New York and Atlanta. The authorization, requested by FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, …
J. Edgar HooverRobert F. KennedyMartin Luther King Jr.FBIStanley Levisonsurveillancecivil-rightsfbi-abuseinstitutional-corruptiondemocratic-erosion
On September 15, 1963, at approximately 10:24 AM, four members of the Ku Klux Klan detonated 19 sticks of dynamite attached to a timing device beneath the steps of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama. The explosion killed four young African American girls—Addie Mae Collins (14), …
Ku Klux KlanRobert ChamblissThomas BlantonBobby Frank CherryFBIcivil-rightsterrorismviolenceinstitutional-racismjudicial-failure
On August 28, 1963, approximately 250,000 people gathered in Washington, D.C., for the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, the largest demonstration for civil rights in American history to that point. Organized by Bayard Rustin and A. Philip Randolph, the march built an alliance of civil …
Martin Luther King Jr.Bayard RustinA. Philip RandolphJohn F. KennedyMahalia Jacksoncivil-rightsnonviolent-resistancedemocratic-participationinstitutional-racismlabor-rights
On May 3, 1963, Birmingham Public Safety Commissioner Bull Connor ordered police and firefighters to unleash high-pressure fire hoses and attack dogs on more than 1,000 young students, some as young as eight years old, who were marching downtown to protest segregation. The previous day, on May 2, …
Bull ConnorMartin Luther King Jr.James BevelBirmingham PoliceBirmingham Fire Departmentcivil-rightsinstitutional-racismpolice-brutalityviolencedemocratic-erosion
On May 14, 1961, the first Freedom Ride bus—a Greyhound carrying civil rights activists challenging segregated interstate transportation—arrived in Anniston, Alabama, where an angry mob of approximately 200 white people, including Ku Klux Klan members, surrounded it. Local authorities had given the …
Congress of Racial EqualityBull ConnorRobert KennedyKu Klux KlanBirmingham Policecivil-rightsinstitutional-racismviolencepolice-complicitydemocratic-erosion
President Eisenhower signed the Civil Rights Act of 1960, expanding on the 1957 Act by authorizing federal courts to appoint voting referees to register Black voters and imposing criminal penalties for obstruction of court orders. However, the law’s case-by-case approach and dependence on …
Dwight D. EisenhowerCongressLyndon B. JohnsonSouthern DemocratsDepartment of Justicevoting-rightscivil-rightsfederal-legislationvoting-refereesobstruction
On February 1, 1960, at 4:30 PM, four African American freshmen from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University—Ezell Blair Jr., David Richmond, Franklin McCain, and Joseph McNeil—sat down at the whites-only lunch counter at the F.W. Woolworth Company store in Greensboro, North …
On June 26, 1959, the Prince Edward County, Virginia Board of Supervisors refused to appropriate funds to the County School Board, effectively closing the entire public school system rather than comply with federal court orders to integrate. This action represented the most extreme manifestation of …
Prince Edward County Board of SupervisorsVirginia General AssemblyHarry Byrdcivil-rightsinstitutional-racismmassive-resistanceeducationdemocratic-erosion
On September 24, 1957, President Dwight Eisenhower invoked the Insurrection Act of 1807 and issued Executive Order 10730, federalizing the Arkansas National Guard and dispatching 1,000 paratroopers from the 101st Airborne Division to Little Rock, Arkansas. This dramatic federal intervention became …
Orval FaubusDwight EisenhowerLittle Rock Nine101st Airborne DivisionArkansas National Guardcivil-rightsinstitutional-racismsegregationfederal-interventiondemocratic-erosion
President Eisenhower signed the Civil Rights Act of 1957, the first federal civil rights legislation since Reconstruction, establishing the Civil Rights Division within the Department of Justice and authorizing federal prosecutors to seek injunctions against interference with voting rights. However, …
Dwight D. EisenhowerLyndon B. JohnsonStrom ThurmondRichard RussellAttorney General Herbert Brownell+1 morevoting-rightscivil-rightsfederal-legislationfilibustersouthern-strategy+1 more
On November 13, 1956, the United States Supreme Court affirmed the district court ruling in Browder v. Gayle, declaring Montgomery, Alabama’s bus segregation laws unconstitutional. The decision marked the triumphant conclusion of the 381-day Montgomery Bus Boycott and established Martin Luther …
Martin Luther King Jr.Rosa ParksE.D. NixonJo Ann RobinsonMontgomery Improvement Association+2 morecivil-rightssegregationjudicialnonviolent-resistancedemocratic-breakthrough
On February 6, 1956, the University of Alabama expelled Autherine Lucy, its first Black student, after a three-day white supremacist riot made her presence on campus untenable. University officials blamed Lucy for the violence and used her NAACP-supported lawsuit challenging her suspension as …