Civil Rights & Immigration

Activists gather outside of Green Bay's prison to rally. (Photo | Isiah Holmes)

Wisconsin’s racial disparities among incarcerated people remain high

BY: - October 2, 2023

Wisconsin continues to incarcerate its residents — especially African Americans — at rates far outpacing other states and even other countries. According to a new Prison Policy Initiative analysis, the Badger State locks up its Black residents, who make up just 6% of the state’s population, in state prisons at a rate of 11.8 times […]

Migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border

Shutdown would mean even more delays in overwhelmed U.S. immigration courts

BY: - September 30, 2023

WASHINGTON — A looming partial government shutdown will put added pressure on an already strained system — U.S. immigration courts. Canceling or rescheduling court cases that many immigrants have awaited for years will cause even more backlogs, immigration attorneys and judges have warned. “Where we’ll really kind of see the backlog continue to build will […]

A Milwaukee police squad in front of the Municipal Court downtown. (Photo | Isiah Holmes)

Racial gap persists in Milwaukee PD’s use of stop and frisk practices, annual report states

BY: - September 26, 2023

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Wisconsin is accusing the Milwaukee Police Department (MPD) of not complying with key provisions of a  five-year-old legal settlement that mandated an end to racial profiling stop and frisk practices in Milwaukee. Citing the latest annual report from the Crime and Justice Institute, which evaluates MPD’s compliance with […]

Protesters occupy the Milwaukee County Jail's main entrance in 2020. (Photo by Isiah Holmes)

Unrest in Milwaukee jail underscores chronic problems

BY: - September 11, 2023

“When you get to a point where you can’t take no more, you go to the extreme to do what you got to do to literally draw attention,” says Sylvester Jackson, a Milwaukee-area activist who focuses on mass incarceration. Jackson was reflecting on recent charges against 27 people held within the Milwaukee County jail. Officials […]

A parade in favor of women's suffrage, the right to vote, in 1913. (National Archives)

Congress and nonprofit working to put women’s suffrage monument on National Mall

BY: - September 7, 2023

As Congress considers a bill to place a women’s suffrage monument on the National Mall, a nonprofit is working to raise the estimated $50 million needed to build it. The Women’s Suffrage National Monument Foundation, the nonprofit backing the effort, launched a donation campaign Tuesday in an effort to raise funds for a memorial honoring […]

Three years after landmark ruling, Congress silent on tribal jurisdiction in Oklahoma 

BY: - September 1, 2023

After a 2020 U.S. Supreme Court ruling defined much of Eastern Oklahoma as a Native American reservation, limiting state jurisdiction over tribal citizens, Congress has taken little interest in addressing the issues the tribes and state officials say the court decision has raised. The 5-4 decision in McGirt v. Oklahoma held that lands the federal […]

An anthropologist comes to terms with a child born different

BY: - August 29, 2023

When his second child was born, Thomas Pearson was taken aback by an unexpected outcome. He and his partner, Tiffani Taggart, had a newborn daughter with physical traits associated with Down syndrome, leading their doctor to recommend a blood test that a week later confirmed the genetic abnormality responsible for the condition. For Pearson, an […]

Joe Biden

‘Hate will not prevail in America’: Biden marks 60 years since March on Washington

BY: - August 29, 2023

The U.S. still hasn’t met the goals of the Civil Rights Movement, President Joe Biden said Monday, the 60th anniversary of one of the movement’s most iconic events. Six decades to the day after the 1963 March on Washington, where Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech, Biden urged Americans not […]

Protesters gather in Milwaukee to march on the Republican debates. (Photo | Isiah Holmes)

Protesters march during Republican debate

BY: - August 24, 2023

Protesters took to the streets Wednesday evening in Milwaukee, speaking out against the first Republican presidential debate as it was being held at the downtown Fiserv Forum. Groups organized throughout the day, culminating in a gathering at Red Arrow Park, a block from Milwaukee city hall. The coalition of groups, including anti-war and pro-union organizers, […]

Anti-vote protest

Activists in Milwaukee brace for Republican debate, RNC

BY: - August 23, 2023

On Wednesday evening, the city of Milwaukee will be the site of the first Republican presidential primary debate, one year before the city plays host to the  Republican National Convention (RNC). Hotel rooms downtown are filling, charging higher rates to accommodate the politicians, pundits and security teams that have been arriving ahead of the debate. […]

Capitol rally to support Dreamers as the U.S. Supreme Court takes up cases against the Trump administration's push to end the DACA program. 11/12/19

Nearly half the states now allow in-state tuition for immigrant students

BY: - August 22, 2023

When Cristian Dubon Solis was getting ready to graduate from a Boston high school in 2020, he started planning to apply to college. It was only then he realized that as an immigrant lacking permanent legal status, he wouldn’t qualify for in-state tuition at Massachusetts state universities, nor for state-sponsored financial aid. With no way to […]

GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN - Ada Deer () with Gwen Moore and Ben Wikler onstage during the WisDems 2023 Convention on June 10, 2023 in Green Bay, Wisconsin. (Photo by Alex Wroblewski/Getty Images for Democratic Party of Wisconsin)

 ‘Force of nature’ Ada Deer dies at 88

BY: - August 17, 2023

This story originally appeared in Indian Country Today. Reprinted with permission. Ada Deer, a “force of nature” and a legendary figure whose life and accomplishments are woven into the social and political fabric of Indian Country, died Tuesday night. Deer, 88, was the first Native American woman to run for statewide office and only the […]