"Beyoncé's recent cover of The Beatles classic 'Blackbird' was especially profound to listeners who know that the song pays homage to the Little Rock Nine — a group of Black students who were at the center of the fight to desegregate public schools in the United States."
"Jennifer Pinsof, staff attorney at Electronic Frontier Foundation, said the technology has been used in too many nefarious circumstances to be trusted... There are several local and state-level regulations in place... to mitigate inappropriate data sharing. Police departments, for instance, are not supposed to share the license plate data with other states, nor with federal law enforcement agencies, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement. That, however, hasn’t stopped at least 73 departments throughout California from violating those rules...
"We found that many California law enforcement agencies share this data not just out of state but specifically with agencies in states that ban abortions, and those law enforcement agencies who now have access to this highly sensitive location data can use it to prosecute things that are crimes within their state but not within the state of California,” she said."
Today in Labor History April 1, 1920: T-Bone Slim's “The Popular Wobbly” was published in the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) "One Big Union Monthly." T-Bone Slim (Matti Valentin Huhta) was a Finnish-American poet, songwriter, journalist, hobo and IWW labor activist. He was a regular columnist for the Industrial Worker, Industrial Solidarity, and Industrialisti. Some of his most well-known labor songs include: The Popular Wobbly, Mysteries Of A Hobo's Life, and The Lumberjack's Prayer. His songs were sung during the Civil Rights protests of the 1960s and Noam Chomsky was a big fan. https://youtu.be/Rn_Wfydg61c
A #Texas appeals court reversed the conviction of #CrystalMason, a Black woman, who had been sentenced to 5 yrs in prison on a charge of illegally voting in 2016, acquitting her in a case that #CivilRights attys cast as part of a broader fight for #VotingRights.
Mason voted w/a provisional ballot in 2016 but did not know she was ineligible to do so. The ballot WAS NOT COUNTED, but she was convicted in 2018.
The #UnitedStates federal government updated how it classifies people by #race & #ethnicity for the 1st time in over a quarter-century, aiming to better capture an increasingly #diverse country & give policymakers a fuller view of the #Americans their work impacts.
The #OMB will combine Qs about #race & #ethnicity on fed forms & encourage people to select multiple options if applicable. The govt also will add “#MiddleEastern or #NorthAfrican” (#MENA) a new category…which will include 7 choices.
“This is truly a momentous day” said Meeta Anand, snr dir for #census & data #equity at the Leadership Conference on Civil & #HumanRights, a natl coalition of >200 #CivilRights grps. The combined question, she added, is “one of the biggest changes we’ve ever seen.”
Today in Labor History March 28, 1977: AFSCME Local 1644 struck in Atlanta, Georgia, for a pay raise. This local of mostly African American sanitation workers saw labor and civil rights as part of the same struggle. They saw their fight as a continuation of the 1968 Memphis sanitation strike. For several years, they organized to get black civil rights leaders elected to public office. They succeeded in getting their man, Maynard Jackson, elected mayor of Atlanta. After all, as vice mayor, Jackson had supported their 1970 strike. Yet, in his first three years as mayor, he refused to give them a single raise. Consequently, their wages dropped below the poverty line for a family of four. Jackson accused AFSCME of attacking Black Power by challenging his authority. He fired over 900 workers by April 1 and crushed the strike by the end of April. Many believe this set the precedent for Reagan’s mass firing of 11,000 air traffic controllers during the PATCO strike, in 1981.
Today In Labor History March 27, 1866: President of the United States of America Andrew Johnson vetoed the Civil Rights Act of 1866. However, Congress overrode his veto and passed the bill, the first time this had occurred over any major legislation. The bill was the first in the U.S. to define citizenship, and to affirm equal rights under the law for all citizens, including African Americans. Johnson’s rationale for the veto was that the law “discriminated” against whites in favor of blacks.
Lawmakers in Thailand’s lower house of Parliament have overwhelmingly approved a marriage equality bill hat would make the country the first in Southeast Asia to legalize equal rights for marriage partners of any gender. The bill passed its final reading with the approval of 400 of the 415 members of the House of...
...Voters like yourself are supporting true religious freedom and all it represents—doggedly.
People of every stripe have voted to overturn state abortion bans and add reproductive freedom language to state constitutions. Scores of “Moms for Liberty” followers have been voted off school boards. Candidates most aligned with Christian Nationalism have been defeated. That's why I know that, with your help, we can continue to turn the tide—but we can’t do it without you.
I believe in the American people, and I know that no organization is better equipped and more determined to defeat the Shadow Network than AU. With your support, we will continue to take them on in the courts, in state legislatures, and wherever religious freedom is in peril.
Today in Labor History March 21, 1965: 3,200 people began the third march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, to protest racial violence. Earlier efforts to hold the march had failed when police attacked demonstrators and a minister was fatally beaten by a group of Selma whites. The five-day walk ended March 26, when 20,000 people joined the marchers in front of the Alabama state Capitol in Montgomery. This time they were defended by national guards and FBI agents. Soon after, Congress passed the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Jewish Americans opposing American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), the most powerful wing of Israel's lobbying in the US, write,
"In contrast to AIPAC, we are American Jews who believe that US support for foreign governments should only be extended to those that respect the full human and civil rights, and right to self-determination, of all people."
Christian Dedmon, a fmr #RankinCounty#sheriff's dpy, was sentenced to 40 yrs [better] in prison for his role in torturing #MichaelCoreyJenkins & #EddieParker, & for a separate incident where he led the #torture of a White man [oh, that’s why 40], Alan Schmidt, in Dec 2022.
Dedmon, who did not look at Jenkins & Parker as he spoke, apologized & said he'd never forgive himself for the pain he caused.
Lawmakers in Thailand overwhelmingly approve a bill to legalize same-sex marriage (apnews.com)
Lawmakers in Thailand’s lower house of Parliament have overwhelmingly approved a marriage equality bill hat would make the country the first in Southeast Asia to legalize equal rights for marriage partners of any gender. The bill passed its final reading with the approval of 400 of the 415 members of the House of...