Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law

As we commemorate and reflect on the one-year mark of the Supreme Court decision that ruled against Affirmative Action, it’s important that we establish clarity around the rights, privileges, and responsibilities of students and educators as they navigate the challenges of engaging with diversity within academic spaces. "The Lawyers' Committee team wants to make it crystal clear. Nothing in the Affirmative Action decisions prevents colleges and universities from focusing on DEIA practices. DEIA programs that facilitate a healthy culture and ensure success for all team members remain lawful and more critical than ever. DEIA programs work to target underserved and underrepresented communities, they support affinity groups, and provide anti-discrimination and anti-bias training at all levels. Now is the time to these lawful programs to ensure diversity in college and the workforce. A diverse student body and a diverse workforce benefit everyone." - Mayah Lubin, Higher Education Equity Senior Coordinator

Black communities need Congress to pass clear, comprehensive legislation for artificial intelligence so that this technology stops replicating past discrimination and starts working for all of us. Earlier this week, Lawyers' Committee President and Executive Director Damon Todd Hewitt was pleased to answer questions from the House Bipartisan AI Taskforce about how Congress can protect our civil rights in a future where AI tools are more prevalent than ever.

A note to students, one year after the Supreme Court ruling on Affirmative Action.

This past weekend, the Lawyers' Committee took part in the festivities of Essence Festival 2024 as a Community Impact partner. At our booth, we welcomed vistors to engage with us as we discussed our commitment to election protection, as well as launched a brand new national voting rights campaign, Ojo Asé: Black Women Answering the Call. We're grateful to everyone who stopped by our table to learn more about our critical work to protect our democracy.

STREAMING LIVE TODAY! Be sure to tune in to today's Global Black Economic Forum panel discussion as part of ESSENCE FESTIVAL, featuring Lawyers' Committee President and Executive Director, Damon Hewitt. He will join a group of other panelists to discuss solutions that advance the future of work, wealth, health, and democracy. Panel begins at 1:40pm CT/2:40pm ET. You can stream it live at essence.com and gbef.com.

Grateful to everyone who visited the Lawyers’ Committee table today at #ESSENCEFEST! Looking forward to meeting more folks tomorrow and discussing some of the critical work the Lawyers’ Committee is doing to protect and ensure a fair, equitable democracy.

Ojo Asé: Black Women Answering the Call is a multifaceted, intergenerational national campaign that centers Black women’s invaluable contributions to American democracy. In yet another pivotal election year, Black women continue to answer the call to ensure that the promises of our democracy are fully realized. Campaign Goals: - Uplift and recognize Black women leaders in the democracy space. - Recruit Black women to serve as nonpartisan poll monitors on November 5, 2024. - Equip voters with nonpartisan resources to provide voter education and increase voter turnout. Get Involved: -Become a Poll Monitor– Defend democracy with Election Protection by serving as a poll monitor in your community. -Nominate Black Woman Voting Rights Champions In Your Network– Help us uplift the stories of the Black women defending our democracy by nominating someone in your network. Nomination process opens August 2024. -Know Your Rights– Learn more about nonpartisan voting rights resources and empower voters in your community. To learn more about the campaign, visit: https://lnkd.in/e3FyNrsZ

Highlights from today’s GBEF Business Forum 1️⃣ “This is not about the @fearless.fund. This is about the current state of America.” 2️⃣ “It’s only through collaboration and partnership that we’ll be able to establish economic freedom and change.” - Arian Simone #economicjustice #economicfreedom #civilrights

"JACKSON, Miss. — A federal court has ordered Mississippi to redraw its 2022 state legislative maps in several areas after concluding those maps unlawfully dilute the voting strength of Black Mississippians. Civil rights advocates challenged the maps and showed at trial that the maps violate Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. Plaintiffs presented extensive expert testimony and testimony from Black Mississippians from across the state to show that the political process in the challenged legislative districts was not equally open to Black voters. Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, the American Civil Liberties Union, ACLU of Mississippi, Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP, Mississippi Center for Justice, and civil rights attorney Carroll Rhodes filed the lawsuit on behalf of the Mississippi State Conference of the NAACP and voters from across the state. The court ruled that multiple new Black-majority districts should have been created — at least two in the state Senate and one in the state House. In the absence of Black-majority districts, stark racial polarization, combined with the history of racial discrimination in the state and other factors, deprives Black voters in the state of the right to participate equally in the political process, in violation of Section 2. The ruling, issued last night, requires the creation of new Black-majority Senate districts in the areas around DeSoto County in Northern Mississippi and in and around the city of Hattiesburg, and a new Black-majority House district in Chickasaw and Monroe counties." Click here to read more: https://lnkd.in/ekqGEgsA

As we commemorate and reflect on the one-year mark of the Supreme Court decision that ruled against Affirmative Action, it’s important that we establish clarity around the rights, privileges, and responsibilities of students and educators as they navigate the challenges of engaging with diversity within academic spaces. "The ruling tests our resolve in the pursuit of equity, making it more difficult to enact policies that create fairness in our education system. This ruling could undermine opportunity and exacerbate disparities, but only if we let it." - Mayah Lubin, Higher Education Equity Senior Coordinator on the Educational Opportunities Project.