civil rights
Religious, civil rights groups demand investigation of NYPD spying
By Omar Sacirbey — October 25, 2013
(RNS) A coalition of 125 religious, civil rights, and community-based organizations sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Justice Thursday urging a civil rights investigation into a New York City Police Department program that spies on Muslims.
COMMENTARY: Change is still going to come
By Joseph Lowery — August 26, 2013
(RNS) We've marched too long, prayed too hard, wept too bitterly, bled too profusely and died too young to let anybody turn back the clock on our journey to justice.
ANALYSIS: Celebrations of ‘I Have a Dream’ speech obscure its critique
By Yonat Shimron and Adelle M. Banks — August 23, 2013
(RNS) On the 50th anniversary of the 1963 March on Washington, scholars say it would be a mistake to celebrate King’s “I Have a Dream” speech without also acknowledging its profound criticism of American values.
Churches raised funds, encouraged crowds at ’63 march
By Deborah Barfield Berry — August 22, 2013
(RNS) Through passionate pulpit sermons, religious leaders helped bring busloads to Washington. Fifty years later, organizers are again turning to churches to help mark the anniversary of the march.
COMMENTARY: Concealed handguns a form of white social control
By Mark I. Pinsky — July 15, 2013
(RNS) Part of the problem lies with with the lunatic -- and, I would argue, racist -- manner in which the Florida legislature has defined self-defense. You can start a fight for any reason, and if you begin to lose the altercation, and feel you are about to suffer grave body harm, you can kill the other person with totally immunity.
Religion & Ethics Newsweekly Video: 1963: Civil rights 50th anniversary
By Sally Morrow — June 26, 2013
The civil rights movement was both “the work of the Lord and the work of freedom,” says author Taylor Branch. “It took redemption, and it took faith and tenacity, not just an empty, simple hope.”
Sounds of Protest: Les Miserables, Gezi Park, and the Power of Music
By Omid Safi — June 18, 2013
Ultimately that’s what so amazing about music at Gezi park. It’s not about the notes. It’s not about the words, or the melodies. It’s ultimately about us, all of us. It's about the power of music to unite all of us. It's about this new global generation of humanity who care about the well-being of one another beyond the narrow confines of nationality, race, creed, or class, that give us hope. They give us hope that they will be able to sing together, make music together, make love together, and make of this old world, a new world.
Feisty civil rights activist Will Campbell dies at 88
By David E. Anderson — June 5, 2013
(RNS) A Southern Baptist who drank moonshine with the Catholic nuns he counted as his friends, Campbell was an equal-opportunity critic, castigating liberals as well as conservatives in his writing, preaching and storytelling.
Robert Ingersoll, in his own words
By Kimberly Winston — May 29, 2013
(RNS) Atheists, humanists and agnostics say Robert Ingersoll's thoughts on civil rights and church-state separation are as relevant today as they were in the late 19th century.
50 years later, recalling the young ‘foot soldiers’ of the civil rights struggle
By Kim Lawton — May 1, 2013
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (RNS) In May 1963, thousands of Birmingham school children faced police dogs, fire hoses and possible arrest to demonstrate against segregation. Now, 50 years later, those who were part of what became known as "the Children’s March'' say they don’t want their story to be forgotten.
Obama extols a biblical vision of equality for all in second inaugural
By David Gibson — January 21, 2013
(RNS) A presidential inauguration is by tradition the grandest ritual of America’s civil religion, but President Obama took the oath of office on Monday (Jan. 21) in a ceremony that was explicit in joining theology to the nation’s destiny and setting out a biblical vision of equality that includes race, gender, class, and, most controversially, sexual orientation.
A new Jewish prayer for MLK Day
By Lauren Markoe — January 19, 2013
American synagogues have a new prayer for Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
Provocative art put Catholic nun in the middle of 1960s maelstrom
By David E. Anderson — July 11, 2012
(RNS) Combining images and words from advertising, pop culture and religion, the bold graphic art of Sister Mary Corita was as deeply representative of the spirit of the 1960s as it was ubiquitous in church basements, dorm rooms and urban communes of people involved in the struggle for civil rights and the campaign to end the Vietnam War. By David E. Anderson.
Muslims call new religious freedom appointee a ‘puppet’ for Islam foes
By Tracy Gordon — March 27, 2012
WASHINGTON (RNS) The U.S. Commission for Religious Freedom just got two new members, both darlings of conservatives: Princeton University philosopher Robert P. George and Zuhdi Jasser, who describes himself as an alternative voice to established Muslim civil rights groups. By Lauren Markoe.
Churches rally around Trayvon Martin on ‘hoodie Sunday’
By Tracy Gordon — March 26, 2012
Concern over the killing of unarmed Trayvon Martin was echoed in religious centers from Atlanta to New York and California, with many preachers and their congregations wearing hooded sweatshirts in Martin's memory.
