Tag: civil rights
Two Louisiana prisoners mark 40 years spent in solitary confinement
This April marks the 40th anniversary of Albert Woodfox and Herman Wallace being sentenced to solitary confinement in a Louisiana prison. That's the longest period someone has spent in solitary in U.S. history. Now it has some saying the practice isn't constitutional....
Political reforms in Myanmar leave residents looking for economic changes as well
As Myanmar is slowly welcomed back into the international community, and as it makes political reforms that have many in the country feeling free, finally, to speak their mind, locals are wondering when economic reforms will come around....
Myanmar loosens restrictions on press freedom
As Myanmar moves ahead with a set of reforms that have included the release of political prisoners, the country's government is also opening up its media. In some cases they've ended pre-publication censorship entirely and in others they've greatly reduced the restrictions....
New book looks at role of Hoover in modern anti-terror culture
As director of the FBI, J. Edgar Hoover created the modern idea of counter terrorism. His tactics included measures which overruled the constitution and discarded individual freedoms. In Enemies: A History of the FBI, author Tim Weiner used recently declassified intelligence files to write a comprehensive history of the FBI....
In India, free speech a wavering ideal
Dozens of books have been banned in India because of their themes and topics. The country is trying to get Google and Facebook to devise a means of pre-filtering religiously objectionable content. All this, taken together, has many saying the country's freedom of speech is disappearing....
Federal court rules California ban on same-sex marriage is unconstitutional
A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, in California, ruled that a voter-initiated constitutional amendment barring same-sex marriages is a violation of the U.S. Constitution. The decision sends the battle over Proposition 8 toward the U.S. Supreme Court....
Egyptian charged with blasphemy over tweeted image of Mickey, Minnie Mouse
Coptic Christian Naguib Sawiris will stand trial this month for sharing an image of an ostensibly Muslim Mickey and Minnie Mouse in the run-up to Egyptian elections. The idea being that if Islamists won the elections, even the two cartoon icons would have to follow conservative Muslim practices. He's accused of blasphemy....
NAACP turning to U.N. as it protests 'concerted attack' on minority voting rights
The NAACP is mounting a counter attack against what it says is a concerted effort to repress the voting rights of poor, predominantly Black and Hispanic voters in America....
Broadway play imagines Martin Luther King's last moments
A new Broadway play called "The Mountaintop" imagines Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s private moments in his hotel room in the hours leading up to his death. ...
Iconic civil rights painting moves to Oval Office
President Obama installs Norman Rockwell's iconic painting, depicting the 1960 integration of the New Orleans school system, outside the Oval Office. ...
