Louisiana’s Jefferson Parish Head Start program is denying impoverished Latino preschoolers access to the program – violations of federal laws and regulations that have led the Southern Poverty Law Center to demand the program stop this discrimination.

When M.C., who was born with an intersex condition, was just 16 months old and in the care of the state of South Carolina, doctors performed sex assignment surgery to make him a girl. Now 8, M.C. identifies as a boy. This first-of-its kind lawsuit charges that the surgery violated his constitutional rights.

Mighty Times The Children's March

Fifty years after young people braved fire hoses and police dogs to end segregation in Birmingham, Ala., their courageous acts were commemorated in the nation’s capital last night as congressional staffers, SPLC members, civil rights advocates and journalists gathered for a screening of Teaching Tolerance’s Academy Award-winning documentary Mighty Times: The Children’s March.

A Louisiana school district at the center of a federal civil rights investigation prematurely pushes students out of classes for English language learners and ultimately “stifles educational opportunities” for these students, according to new findings uncovered by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

 

The U.S. Supreme Court’s refusal to hear Alabama’s appeal of a court decision that blocked part of its anti-immigrant law is further proof that immigration enforcement is not a duty of the states, but the federal government which must pass comprehensive immigration reform.

The SPLC issued a statement today in response to the efforts by immigration reform opponents to exploit the Boston Marathon bombings in an effort to derail reform legislation.

 

 

With today's introduction of a bipartisan immigration bill in the U.S. Senate aimed at overhauling the nation’s broken immigration system, the Southern Poverty Law Center called for immigration reform that protects the human and civil rights of low-skill workers.

 

The Southern Poverty Law Center joined poultry workers, advocates and others gathered outside U.S. Rep. Robert Aderholt’s district office in Gadsden, Ala., today to urge him to block new poultry industry regulations that threaten the health and safety of workers and consumers across the country.

The SPLC today urged Alabama’s top public school official to address the widespread failure of schools and districts to comply with state and federal law when they request Social Security numbers for enrollment – a practice that chills enrollment of immigrant students in public schools.

The Southern Poverty Law Center’s Teaching Tolerance project named 63 schools across the nation as Mix It Up Model Schools today for their exemplary efforts to foster respect and understanding among their students and throughout campus during the 2012-13 school year.