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The Alabama Solution
Join us for an important screening of The Alabama Solution, followed by a community conversation around detention conditions in Oklahoma. The Alabama Solution is a powerful documentary that exposes the realities of Alabama’s prison system and centers the voices of those living within it. The brutality shown in the documentary is not unique. In a way, it shows every prison because of the violence and oppression that prison breeds. The film invites us to confront the human cost of incarceration, the forces that allow injustice to persist, and the urgent need for accountability and systemic change. Join advocates working across issues of incarceration, immigration detention, and the death penalty in Oklahoma for a community conversation after the screening that discusses how the film relates to what is happening in Oklahoma and actions you can take to fight injustice in our state.
Hosted by the Tulsa Artist Fellowship, the Julius Jones Institute, and the ACLU of Oklahoma, this event is free and open to the public. Light refreshments will be served, and we will be joined by local community organizations who will provide free resources and ways to stay involved in advocacy efforts.
America, It Is Time to Talk About Reparations
We are two months away from the 400th anniversary of the first enslaved people arriving in what would become the United States of America. It is time to renew the public discussion about reparations to descendants of Africans who were enslaved as our country was forming and growing rich. First as colonies and then as a nation, America has existed longer with slavery (1619-1865: 246 years) than without it (1865-2019: 154 years). And the reality of the institution of enslaving people is not the “good food and a decent place to live” narrative of Bill O’Reilly on Fox News and others who minimize the horror of the practice. The first 100 of the 154 years without slavery were characterized by socially mandated and legally enforced white supremacy. There were 4,075 lynchings between 1877 and 1950 (an average of a little over one lynching every week).If the 1965 Civil Rights Act, passed the year after three civil rights workers were killed in Philadelphia, Mississippi, “leveled the playing field” in America, descendants of enslaved Africans have lived “free” in America for about 54 years. Of course, that 54 years has been characterized by the Republican-inspired war on drugs, the Democratic 1994 crime bill, and a report from the Economic Policy Institute last year that identified “no progress” since 1968 in closing gaps between whites and Blacks in home ownership, employment, or incarceration. In this world, freedom does start to sound like “nothing left to lose.”
This Family Just Reminded CBP We Don’t Lose Our Rights at the Border
Hugh Handeyside, Former Senior Staff Attorney, ACLU National Security Project
U.S.
We’re Suing to Protect Press Freedom During the COVID-19 Pandemic
Brian Hauss, Senior Staff Attorney, ACLU Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project
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When a Two-Year Sentence Becomes a Death Sentence
Ruth Anna Buffalo, She/her/hers, Representative, North Dakota, North Dakota House of Representatives
DeVos is Rolling Back Protections for Sexual Harassment and Assault Survivors in Schools. We’re Suing to Put a Stop to It.
Jennesa Calvo-Friedman, Staff Attorney, ACLU
Thank You, Aimee
Aimee Stephens, a trailblazer in trans rights, passed away in her home this week at the age of 59. Together, we sued for discrimination after Aimee was fired from her job for being transgender. When Aimee decided to fight back, she just wanted it to be acknowledged that what happened to her was wrong. She ended up making history by bringing the Supreme Court its first trans civil rights case. Aimee died before the Court issued a decision on her case, but the fight for trans rights continues in her honor.
President Trump’s Assault On Inspectors General Threatens Our Civil Liberties
Kate Oh, Senior Policy Counsel, ACLU National Political Advocacy Department
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During COVID-19 Crisis, We Must Prioritize the Release of Pregnant People
Lauren Kuhlik, Equal Justice Works Fellow, ACLU National Prison Project
Tribes are Sovereign Nations: Oral Argument on McGirt v Oklahoma Start Today at the US Supreme Court
First there was Carpenter v Murphy (now Sharp v Murphy) and now the McGirt v Oklahoma case will be heard in front of the United States Supreme Court. Both, or more likely either, have big implications for Indian County, the state of Oklahoma, and any person who believes treaties should be respected. But here’s what you need to know going into today’s oral argument.
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