We must recognize a fundamental correspondence between Birmingham in 1963 and Minnesota in 2026, and the broader experience each represents.
Civil Rights
Posted inArts & Culture, Books
Review: The moral authority of John Lewis
David Greenberg has produced a biography of John Lewis that, if not quite definitive, is still the gold standard by which all subsequent biographies will be judged.
Posted inLast Take
Bishop Perry on on voting rights and the Catholic Church’s call to justice
As the Supreme Court revisits the Voting Rights Act, we remember that the journey to that decision was long and hard. Black Americans labored tirelessly for civil rights, including the right to vote—a right that had been systematically denied.
Posted inEditorials, Politics & Society
Trump’s attacks on immigrants hurt all Americans—and our democracy
The administration’s attacks on immigrants imperil the rights and freedom of all Americans.
Posted inDispatches, Politics & Society
Jesuits urge Ortega to ‘stop the repression’ on one year anniversary of Nicaragua’s government seizing university
Jesuits: The “unpunished and unjustified confiscation” of UCA has done “inestimable damage to the scientific and cultural heritage of Nicaragua.”
Posted inDispatches, Politics & Society
Jesuit human rights advocates in Mexico targeted by state-sponsored spyware
Mexico’s military has been one of the most prolific users of Pegasus spyware since 2011, having “targeted more cell phones with spyware than any other government agency in the world.”
Posted inPolitics & Society, Short Take
Jan. 6, election lies and doomsday politics: How Catholics can lead in the fight to protect democracy
Voters generally rejected “election denier” candidates this year, but barriers to full voter access remain significant. Catholics still have an important role to play in protecting democracy.
Posted inArts & Culture, Books
Long before RBG, Justice John Marshall Harlan was the Supreme Court’s ‘great dissenter’
Peter S. Canellos provides us with a fascinating biography of a Supreme Court judge who was the sole dissenter in both the Civil Rights Cases (1883) and in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), in which the court held that the Constitution established the separate-but-equal doctrine.
Posted inFaith, Short Take
4 lessons for a post-Roe world from Fannie Lou Hamer: a pro-life, civil rights icon
As the pro-life movement prepares for the possibility of a post-Roe America, there are several lessons it can learn from Hamer’s advocacy and the civil rights movement.
Posted inPolitics & Society, Short Take
How can we honor Martin Luther King Jr.? Defund (while respecting) the police
Now is an opportune time to do the right thing—to defund the police and invest in a diversified strategy for public safety and well-being.