Hopewatch
Hopewatch amplifies the unwavering commitment of people who tirelessly advocate for racial and social justice.
Get the latest investigative reporting from Hopewatch
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- Strengthening Democracy & Voting Rights
Voting Rights Act anniversary a reminder of people’s power to bring change
Seventy years ago, a coalition of young lawyers, activists, preachers and Americans of conscience joined together for a monumental fight: to secure the right to vote and dismantle segregation across the Jim Crow South. Ten years later, the passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, which celebrates its 60th anniversary today, transformed Black voter participation.…
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- Dismantling White Supremacy
Apathy Is Not an Option: They’re erasing Black history. We’re not letting them.
As students across the country head back to school, they’re facing a coordinated campaign to rewrite — or erase — Black history from classrooms. But educators, authors and activists aren’t backing down. In the latest episode of the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Apathy Is Not an Option podcast, host Alexandria Beightol speaks with two powerful…
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- Eliminating Poverty and Economic Inequality
Making the case that due process is essential for our students to thrive
Due process, the right to fair treatment within governmental systems, is at the core of America’s legal system. It was created to ensure that equity is present in criminal and civil procedures. Without due process, anyone on American soil is in jeopardy of not receiving fair treatment in the legal system. School systems, too, are…
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- Dismantling White Supremacy
Nine lessons for fighting authoritarianism using art in an age of resistance
It’s no surprise that President Donald Trump’s administration is defunding artists and their capacity to produce art while targeting cultural institutions. Authoritarians have always tried to control the creative community and ruthlessly stamp out art contrary to their ideology. The symbolism of a culture the administration disdains, combined with the power of art to penetrate…
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- Strengthening Democracy & Voting Rights
Inadequate federal election funding endangers voters and our democracy
This week, a U.S. House subcommittee with a wonky name — Financial Services and General Government (FSGG) — will consider a funding bill with significant implications for the health of our democracy. The FSGG bill is the smallest of the 12 funding bills that must pass every year to fund the federal government. It often…
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- Dismantling White Supremacy
Advocates hope LFJ podcast relaunch will disrupt ‘hard history’ continuum
The Southern Poverty Law Center’s Learning for Justice (LFJ) program is relaunching the Teaching Hard History podcast series — with host Hasan Kwame Jeffries — to resist current efforts aimed at altering our nation’s history. So, just what is hard history? In the short TEDx video “Confronting Hard History,” Jeffries explains: “[American slavery is] hard history because it’s difficult to…
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When valuing family demands significant personal change
For the last five years, I’ve had the extraordinary opportunity to lead the Southern Poverty Law Center. My position was more than just a job. It was rooted in my deep belief that all people deserve to live with dignity and respect. It’s what’s driven my human rights work for the past three decades. In the…
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- Dismantling White Supremacy
In a systemically racist nation, apathy is a luxury Black people cannot afford
Growing up Black in Alabama, I saw firsthand how systemic inequities shaped daily life. I watched my mother endure hours-long waits in overcrowded clinics, my aunt struggle with unstable housing and law enforcement officers profile and brutalize Black men and women. These were symptoms of a broader system that denied Black and Brown communities access…
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- Dismantling White Supremacy
‘Critical Memory’ sites remind us of our responsibility to acknowledge the past
As we commemorate the 80th anniversary of World War II’s gradual, grinding close, from V-E Day on May 8 through V-J Day on Aug. 14, I recently had the opportunity to travel to Germany. I was one of 50 delegates from the U.S. and Germany gathered for a joint project titled “Building a Critical Memory:…
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- Dismantling White Supremacy
When the People Rise: Juneteenth, George Floyd and the Black resistance legacy
Juneteenth marks the day the last people who were enslaved in Texas learned they were free — 2 1/2 years after the Emancipation Proclamation. It’s a celebration of freedom fulfilled. But the truth is, freedom for Black people in America has often been delayed and denied — but always demanded. That legacy didn’t begin in…
