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11th Circuit Court of Appeals Reverses Course in “boy” case

The Editors — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 20:42:03 +0000

A panel of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals reversed itself to reinstate a jury’s finding that John Hithon, an African-American worker at a Tyson Foods plant in Gadsden, Alabama, was discriminated against by his employer.

NYT Ltr. to the Editor: A New Way to Achieve Civil Rights?

The Editors — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 21:20:13 +0000

By John Payton
Editor’s Note -- The President and Director-Counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund takes issue in a letter to the New York Times of November 2 with a recent op-ed dismissing the effectiveness of recent civil rights litigation.

Black firefighter hopefuls who sued 16 years ago turn out for physical testing

The Editors — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 21:00:55 +0000

By Ronnie Reese via the Chicago Tribune
Editor's Note -- Nearly two decades ago, nearly 6,000 black Chicagoans had sought the chance to serve their city as firefighters. Their quest dream was at first denied, and then long-delayed before being ultimately vindicated by the Supreme Court in the case of Lewis v. The City of Chicago. This week the first of those candidates were called to begin the first round of testing, as an article from the Chicago Tribune

Supreme Court Blocks Largest Discrimination Case in Nation’s History

The Editors — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 19:14:59 +0000

The Court’s ruling makes it more difficult for workers to collectively enforce their right to a discrimination-free workplace.

Fight for Justice Continues for NYC Public School Custodians

The Editors — Fri, 20 May 2011 19:24:45 +0000

Earlier this week, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit issued an order requiring a federal trial court to further review an agreement that settled an employment discrimination lawsuit against the New York City Board of Education.

Court of Appeals Victory in Chicago Firefighter Discrimination Case

The Editors — Fri, 13 May 2011 19:04:07 +0000

This morning, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit ruled in favor of a class of over 6,000 qualified African-American firefighter applicants who were unfairly denied the opportunity to work for the Chicago Fire Department.

Advocacy Group Reports 65 Million Americans Barred From Employment

The Editors — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 19:26:10 +0000

By Stacey Patton
In this climate, when employers can be especially choosy about whom they hire, and some major companies appear to be engaging in a discriminatory practice that hurts the unemployed, a disproportionate number of them black.

PrimeLending Settles Federal Discrimination Complaint

The Editors — Fri, 10 Dec 2010 22:00:45 +0000

By Doug Miller
Facing prosecution by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), national mortgage lender PrimeLending has agreed to pay $2 million to African-American home buyers who the federal agency says were unfairly charged higher interest rates because of their race.

LDF Files Friend-of-the-Court Brief in Tyson Foods Discrimination Case

The Editors — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 19:56:58 +0000

John Hithon believed his supervisor’s failure to promote him resulted from racial prejudice and filed an employment discrimination claim against Tyson Foods, Inc. in 1996. Part of the evidence backing Hithon’s claim was testimony confirming his white boss’s habit of referring to him, an African-American man, using the derogatory term “boy.”

The “Ban The Box” Movement Scores Victories

The Editors — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 02:18:49 +0000

By Kenneth J. Cooper So far this year three states have passed laws to help ex-offenders land jobs. But because the changes in anti-discrimination statutes impact the back end of incarceration, they don’t wring any of the rampant racial unfairness out of the criminal justice system.

New Chicago Fire Commissioner Pledges Welcome to Black Candidates

The Editors — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 03:09:16 +0000

By The Editors Diversity and equal opportunity in the Chicago Fire Department appears to have a high-level champion—the prospective new Fire Commissioner.

LDF Victory in Chicago

The Editors — Sat, 29 May 2010 02:39:57 +0000

By Stacey Patton
This week LDF won another significant victory in the Supreme Court. In Lewis v. Chicago, the Court ruled unanimously that the City of Chicago can be held responsible for each time it used a hiring practice that arbitrarily blocked qualified black applicants from employment.

Rand Paul and The Not Ready For Prime Time Movement

The Editors — Mon, 24 May 2010 19:47:58 +0000

By Lee A. Daniels
Paul revealed – again -- that when it comes to protecting citizens from discrimination, libertarianism favors a policy of governmental benign neglect that would leave the targets of discrimination stranded in a vast, turbulent sea of injustice.

NAACP Legal Defense Fund Commends President Obama on Strengthening Equal Employment Opportunity Commission

The Editors — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 17:50:36 +0000

Jacqueline Berrien, Associate Director Counsel for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, is being appointed as Chair of the EEOC.

LDF Defends Chicago Black Firefighters

The Editors — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 01:28:14 +0000

By The Editors Washington, D.C. -- February 22 -- In a closely-watched case involving the hiring of black firefighters in Chicago, the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. today urged the U.S. Supreme Court to prevent mis-interpreted technical rules from blocking the correction of discrimination in employment.

The (Missed) Opportunity of a Lifetime

The Editors — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 21:38:35 +0000

By Leslie Proll When President Obama took office last January, hopes were high that the right wing’s long stronghold on the federal courts had come to an end. LDF and other civil rights advocates were eager for a new day when fair and impartial judges would once again be nominated and confirmed in large numbers.

Obama at Year One

The Editors — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 21:31:02 +0000

By John Payton
A year ago, we could barely contain our excitement as we contemplated a historic achievement. Barack Obama had won a decisive victory. There was widespread enthusiasm for his Presidency. Right after the election, Gallup reported that 68 percent of the public was proud that Obama was President. His choices of Senator Hillary Clinton to be Secretary of State, of Eric Holder to be Attorney General and of Robert Gates to remain as Secretary of Defense were well received. His Inaugural speech was brilliant. We were looking forward to acknowledging and confronting fundamental problems that have plagued our society for decades.

Real-world Therapy for Retail Bankers: Five Steps to a Healthy Business and Renewed Popularity

The Editors — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 20:09:59 +0000

By Doug Miller Maybe, just maybe, America’s retail bankers really don’t get it. Despite being hauled before Congress, derided by the president and sinking like a bar of gold bullion in an increasingly choppy sea of public opinion, maybe they’re just incapable at this point of seeing the balance sheet for what it really is.

Unequal Opportunity and Whitewashed Resumes

The Editors — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 20:06:38 +0000

By Khalil Gibran Muhammad "Education is the key to success. Knowledge is power." Wise words repeated countless times to young people at home and in school every single day. But what should we say to them if one day their hard work meets empty promises, if their dreams are deferred, or their first paycheck of material reward is marked insufficient funds.

HAITI 90999/YELE 501501 or: How I Learned to Stop Fretting and Appreciate Social Networks

The Editors — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 17:25:38 +0000

By Jill Nelson
The Haitian earthquake crisis will be remembered as the moment in which the technology and platforms that enable social networking were used and transformed by ordinary citizens—the period when Twitter, Facebook, blogs, and other social networking sites became agents of change, and technology transcended commercialism, politics, personality, and trivia.

Post-Racial? Not Yet

The Editors — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 20:56:05 +0000

By The Editors
John Payton, speaking at one of the nation’s most historic black institutions of higher learning, takes on the challenging question – and assertion – President Obama’s election has inevitably raised: Does that mean the United States of America has become a “post-racial” society?

Justice Department Moves to Reinvigorate Civil Rights Division

The Editors — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 20:56:39 +0000

By The Editors The effort of the Obama administration to restore the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division as an agent of the nation’s civil rights laws has apparently shifted into high gear.

NAACP Legal Defense Fund Applauds Decision by Federal Appeals Court in Ford Employment Discrimination Case

The Editors — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 21:05:15 +0000

By The Editors The United States Court of Appeals in Cincinnati has issued a decision ordering a jury trial to determine whether the Ford Motor Company illegally fired an African-American auto-worker because she was pursuing a claim of racial discrimination against the auto giant.

America’s Next Race War: How Ricci v. DeStefano Seeks to Redefine Discrimination

The Editors — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 12:49:22 +0000

By Cheryl I. Harris and Kimberly West-Faulcon The Supreme Court’s narrow ruling in Ricci declaring that the City of New Haven discriminated against white firefighters implicates more than just one case. It is actually the latest salvo in the war being waged by the Court’s conservative majority to redefine racial discrimination as any and all race-conscious action—even when taken to avoid race discrimination.

Supreme Court Ruling Creates New Legal Standard That Restricts Equal Employment Opportunity

The Editors — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 23:00:49 +0000

By The Editors In a controversial and closely-watched case, Ricci v. DeStefano et al, the U.S. Supreme Court today ruled in favor of white New Haven firefighters who claimed the city had discriminated against them on racial grounds because it scrapped an officers’ promotion test in which 17 white firefighters and one Hispanic firefighter met the requirements for promotion. In the test a number of black firefighters passed but none scored high enough to be considered for promotion.

In a controversial and closely-watched case, Ricci v. DeStefano et al, the U.S. Supreme Court today ruled in favor of white New Haven firefighters who claimed the city had discriminated against them on racial grounds because it scrapped an officers’ promotion test in which 17 white firefighters and one Hispanic firefighter met the requirements for promotion. In the test a number of black firefighters passed but none scored high enough to be considered for pro