Alabama lawmakers just can’t help themselves. When the legislature convened this year, its members had an opportunity to repair the damage the state’s harsh anti-immigrant law had inflicted across Alabama.Promises were made. Changes were supposedly in the works.
In Louisiana’s Jefferson Parish Public School System, African-American students face a harsh reality. Typical teenage misbehavior, such as horseplay or cursing, doesn’t result in a trip to the principal’s office. Instead, these students are shipped off to alternative schools where they often languish for months, even years.
A federal judge has approved a settlement agreement between the Southern Poverty Law Center and the public school system in Jackson, Miss., to reform discipline policies across the district and to end the brutal practice of handcuffing students to railings and poles for hours at a time as punishment for minor rule violations.
It’s a common sight across the country: A family packs up its belongings and moves to a new state it will call home. Sometimes it’s a job opportunity that calls. Other times it’s family. These moves are life-changing events for any family, but for LGBT people, the simple act of crossing a state line has even more significance.
In an effort to help law enforcement officers protect themselves and their communities from dangerous extremists, the SPLC has produced a new training video that gives officers a rare, behind-the-scenes look at the violent subculture of racist skinheads.
Extremists leading a powerful resurgence of the American radical right are pushing baseless conspiracy theories and demonizing propaganda about minority groups into the mainstream, according to the latest issue of the SPLC’s Intelligence Report, released today.
As the school year draws to a close, the SPLC salutes just a few of the students this year who fought the good fight, challenging homophobia and gender discrimination in their schools.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture wants a new rule that will dramatically increase processing line speeds at poultry plants – a rule that will only ruin the lives of more plant workers in an industry where hundreds of thousands of workers already suffer painful, debilitating injuries.
"Today is an incredibly dark day for Alabama. Despite the fact that our state has suffered incredibly over the past year as a result of HB56, the Alabama legislature and Governor Bentley have chosen to double down by passing and signing into law an even more extreme measure. While other states have abandoned similar measures and even recalled the sponsors of such measures, Alabama has once again made a name for itself as the worst of the worst."
Registration is open for the Mix It Up at Lunch Day 2012, set for Oct. 30.
The event, sponsored by the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Teaching Tolerance program, encourages students across the nation to challenge and cross social boundaries by sitting with someone new in the cafeteria for just one day.
