The League of Iowa Human & Civil Rights Agencies

When Shelton Johnson was 5, his family took him to Berchtesgaden National Park in the Bavarian Alps. To this day, he remembers his sense of awe. “The mountains, the sky being so close — it affected me profoundly,” said Mr. Johnson, who now works as a ranger at Yosemite National Park in California. In 23 years on the job, Mr. Johnson, 52, has been equally struck by how few of his fellow African-Americans visit the national parks, Yosemite included. A few years ago, he decided...

Remember last year’s furor involving the Cambridge, Massachusetts, police arrest of Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates and the subsequent beer fest hosted by President Barack Obama at the White House for Gates and the police sergeant?In many ways, we’re seeing a replay of that situation in the current controversy over the remarks made by U.S. Department of Agriculture official Shirley Sherrod.

For the full context surrounding Sherrod’s remark...

With New Homes, Town Makes Amends for Its Bias

By Susan Saulny, New York Times

Published: March 10, 2010

HAMTRAMCK, Mich. — Even though more than 50 years have passed since Sallie Sanders was a confused little girl wondering why her family was kicked out of their house for being on the wrong side of the color line here, t...

Minority babies set to become majority in 2010: Year could be tipping point when non-white newborns outnumber white

Updated March 10, 2010, Associated Press

WASHINGTON - Minorities make up nearly half the children born in the U.S., part of a historic trend in which minorities are expected to become the U.S. majority over the next 40 years. I...

African American Experiences in the Economy: Recession Effects More Strongly Felt 

By: Rebecca Perron, AARP Knowledge Management

Source: AARP.org (February 2010)

While millions of Americans have experienced hard times during the economic recession, the environment for many African Americans age 45+ and their families h...

Census Confidentiality Assured 

By Julia Preston

Published: March 4, 2010 (New York Times)

The Justice Department reassured minority leaders in Congress on Thursday that confidential personal information gathered in this year’s census count would not be shared with the Department of Homeland Security ...

The police at the University of California, San Diego, are investigating the discovery Monday night of what appeared to be a Ku Klux Klan-style hood on a statue outside the main campus library. The hood, “crudely fashioned” from a pillowcase, a university statement said, was found along with a rose placed in the statue’s fingers. The campus has been shaken by racial incidents in the past two weeks that have led to student protests and promises by administrators to improve th...

William Diaz of the 462nd Transportation Battalion feels like he's fighting a war on two fronts. In April, the 39-year-old U.S. Army Reserve corporal is being deployed to Kuwait for a year-long tour. But for the past few months, Diaz has been fighting another very painful battle in his own backyard: American Servicing Corp., a division of Wells Fargo, is seeking a court order to foreclose on his two-family home in Elizabeth, N.J., a predominately Latino city. "I am being deployed. I can'...

Though critics of the Chicago Transit Authority’s recent cuts in service contend that the reductions disproportionately affect low-income and minority areas, a Chicago News Cooperative analysis of transit, racial and economic data paints a more even-handed, and milder, picture. A measurement of wait times and reductions of late-night service shows that the cuts do not have a bigger affect on those sections of the city. Critics argue that minorities, particularly on the South and West Si...

WATERLOO - After surveying middle school students' attitudes on racism and bullying, St. Edward's School sixth-graders are proposing ways to deal with the problems. The students presented their ideas Thursday as featured speakers at the Waterloo Commission on Human Rights annual awards luncheon. The 31-question survey, part of a service learning project on the topic, was handed out to all sixth- through eighth-graders at three Cedar Valley Catholic Schools and one unnamed Waterloo public scho...