Unity Park will honor two new civil rights champions in 2021
Starkville’s Unity Park will start accepting nominations Tuesday for individuals who have worked for civil rights for the Black community in Oktibbeha County.
Southern states join to promote civil rights tourism
Southern states that once fought to maintain racial segregation are now banding together to promote civil rights tourism at sites including the building where the Confederacy was born and the motel where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. died.
Bill introduced to split MLK, Robert E. Lee holidays
A Columbus legislator has filed a bill that would designate separate days to commemorate Martin Luther King Jr. and Confederate General Robert E. Lee.
Final suspect in 1965 civil rights slaying dies in Alabama
The last of three men tried and acquitted in an infamous civil rights slaying in Alabama has died.
Some civil rights sites at risk of being lost to history
A once-thriving all-black settlement in the New Mexico desert is a ghost town that rarely appears on maps.
Civil-rights marchers: US still needs to address inequality
A half-century ago, thousands joined a march across Mississippi to challenge a system that condoned violence against black people and suppressed their rights — issues still reverberating in today’s national debates about police violence.
Justice quest goes on after ‘Freedom Summer’ cases end
The search for courtroom justice in the 1964 “Freedom Summer” killings of three civil rights workers in Mississippi’s Neshoba County is over, more than a half century after they died, but some Mississippians and the relatives of the slain men say the search for another kind of justice still is still ongoing.
Prosecutor: ‘Mississippi Burning’ civil rights case closed
One day short of the 52nd anniversary of three civil rights workers’ disappearance during Mississippi’s “Freedom Summer,” state and federal prosecutors said Monday that the investigation into the slayings is over.
Miss. prosecutor sets up civil rights unit
The head of the U.S. Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division says there’s more work to be done to guarantee the rights of citizens in Mississippi and nationwide.
Boycott over LGBT law impacts more than just the music fans
Stagehand Kery Eller doesn’t own any Bruce Springsteen albums, but he would smash them if he did.
N.C. governor’s lawsuit against feds may shift narrative on LGBT law
After weeks of taking a beating from critics over North Carolina’s law dictating which restrooms transgender people can use, Gov. Pat McCrory adopted a strategy long favored by Southern conservative governors: He went after the federal government.
‘Folks back home’ have varying views on N. Carolina LGBT law
In defending a law limiting protections for LGBT people, North Carolina’s powerful Republican Senate leader recently said that “folks back home” couldn’t understand the outcry that’s included loud demonstrations, and dozens of arrests, over the law.
US sues North Carolina over transgender bathroom law
A potentially epic clash over transgender rights took shape Monday when the U.S. Justice Department sued North Carolina over the state’s bathroom law after the governor refused to back down.
N.C. gov. faces Fed’s deadline on LGBT law
North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory shows no signs of backing down in the face of the federal government’s deadline today to declare he won’t enforce the new state law limiting protections for LGBT people — defiance that could risk funding for the state’s university system and lead to a protracted legal battle.
NC college system’s federal funds in crosshairs of LGBT law
North Carolina’s prized public universities could be the biggest losers as state leaders defend a new law limiting the rights of LGBT people.
N.C. leaders denounce federal threat on LGBT law
Giving no indication of yielding to pressure, North Carolina’s Republican leaders called a federal warning about the legality of the state’s new law limiting LGBT anti-discrimination rules a broad overreach by the government.
Michael Gerson: Viewing Ferguson from Selma
The juxtaposition of the Justice Department’s damning Ferguson report and President Obama’s fine speech to mark the 50th anniversary of Bloody Sunday was coincidental. But the founders of the civil rights movement would certainly have found it providential, so I’ll go with that.
Flonzie Brown-Wright talk canceled
The civil rights movement program scheduled for tonight at the R.E. Hunt Museum and Cultural Center in Columbus has been canceled due to weather-related travel concerns for the speaker, Flonzie Brown-Wright.
Columbus Library hosting Freedom Summer exhibit
The Columbus-Lowndes Public Library is currently hosting the traveling exhibit “Stand Up!: Mississippi Freedom Summer of 1964” through March 2.
Columbus Library to host civil rights programming
To introduce four documentaries with new footage illustrating the history of civil rights in America, the Columbus-Lowndes Public Library will host a series of discussion forums and scholarly presentations.