Racial Justice

Despite the spirit of equality on which our Founders based our nation, inequality infected our Constitution from the very start. It took more than 75 years after the Constitution was written and a civil war before civil rights amendments were added to the document. It was another hundred years before laws were passed outlawing racial discrimination in employment, housing, public education, public accommodations, and voting. In spite of these enormous strides, however, the promise of fair and equal treatment for people of color remains frustratingly elusive.

Equal public education is still not a reality, as minority school districts have substantially fewer resources than white public schools. The "war on drugs" has disproportionately targeted people of color for prosecution and imprisonment. There have long been discrepancies in the application of capital punishment, with people of color more likely to receive the death penalty than whites. Voting districts created to provide equal electoral opportunity and fair representation have been negated by Congress, and the elections of 2000 and 2004 demonstrated that every vote cast in this country may or may not be counted. Our nation's poor neighborhoods - often populated by people of color - are wracked with poverty, violence, illness and police brutality.