Thurgood Marshall (center) with George E.C. Hayes and James Nabri congratulate each other for winning an important case against segregation in 1954
7. United States v. Thind (1923)An Indian-American U.S. Army veteran named Bhagat Singh Thind attempted the same strategy as Takeo Ozawa, but his attempt at naturalization was rejected in a ruling establishing that Indians, too, are not white. Well, the ruling technically referred to "Hindus" (ironic considering that Thind was actually a Sikh, not a Hindu), but the terms were used interchangeably at the time. Three years later he was quietly granted citizenship in New York; he went on to earn a Ph.D. and teach at the University of California at Berkeley.
8. Lum v. Rice (1927)In 1924, Congress passed the Oriental Exclusion Act to dramatically reduce immigration from Asia--but Asian Americans born in the United States were still citizens, and one of these citizens, a nine-year-old girl named Martha Lum, faced a catch-22. Under compulsory attendance laws, she had to attend school--but she was Chinese and she lived in Mississippi, which had racially segregated schools and not enough Chinese students to warrant funding a separate Chinese school. Lum's family sued to try to allow her to attend the well-funded local white school, but the Court would have none of it.
Judge stresses legal responsibility (click here)
Katie Perry
Issue date: 1/25/06 Section: News
Lawyers and judges should be responsible for their work, William Pryor Jr., U.S. Circuit Judge of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, said in an address to the Federalist Society at the Notre Dame Law School Tuesday.Pryor spoke about specific historical instances of racial and religious bigotry and emphasized the dire need for lawyers to exert morality in their profession in the first of his two speeches delivered at the University Tuesday.To illustrate his argument, Pryor employed the 1921 Birmingham, Ala. court case of State vs. Stephenson. The trial followed the alleged murder of Catholic priest Father James Coyle by Methodist preacher and Ku Klux Klan member E.R. Stephenson.Pryor said Stephenson became so enraged when he discovered his daughter Ruth had converted to Catholicism - thus becoming a member of Coyle's St. Paul's Church - and wed a Puerto Rican that he shot the priest three times on the steps of his rectory. A fervent member of the Birmingham Ku Klux Klan, Stephenson had a deep-seated animosity for Catholics, as the Klan's discrimination extended beyond racial lines and into the religious realm, Pryor said...
Racism seen in Wal-Mart Web site lists (click here)
YLAN Q. MUI; The Washington PostPublished: January 6th, 2006 02:30 AM
WASHINGTON – Wal-Mart apologized Thursday after its retail Web site directed potential buyers of “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” and “Planet of the Apes” DVDs to also consider purchasing items with African American themes.
The world’s largest retailer said in a statement that it was “heartsick” over the racially offensive grouping and that the site was linking “seemingly random combinations of titles.”
“It’s just simply not working correctly,” said Mona Williams, vice president of corporate communications for Wal-Mart Stores Inc.
The company said it was alerted to the problem early Thursday afternoon after word began spreading among bloggers.
When visitors to Walmart.com requested “Planet of the Apes: The Complete TV Series” on DVD, four other movies were recommended under the heading “Similar Items.” Those films included “Martin Luther King: I Have A Dream/Assassination of MLK” and “Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson.”
Williams said similar titles were called up when the DVD of the movie “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” was requested. There were three such combinations involving those two movies and African American films, she said.
Bentonville, Ark.-based Wal-Mart said it planned to shut down its entire cross-selling system overnight.
Like most other major retail sites, such as Amazon.com, Wal-Mart’s site directs users searching for movies to other titles that might interest them. Wal-Mart said Thursday that the system was malfunctioning but did not explain why or how.
Williams said “we have absolutely no evidence” that the problem was intentional. She said news of the problem was first posted on a blog. The company then learned about the offensive combinations when a reporter called to ask about it.
The blog Firedoglake, run by Jane Hamsher in Oregon, posted news of the combination Thursday afternoon under the heading “So Wrong.”
Retired Justice Ortique dies after suffering stroke (click here)
06:55 AM CDT on Monday, June 23, 2008
WWL-TV
Louisiana’s first African-American justice on the state’s Supreme Court died Sunday from complications of a stroke....
