Author: TheConversation

By Anthony Siracusa, Senior Director of Inclusive Culture and Initiatives, University of Colorado Boulder On July 2, 1964, Martin Luther King Jr. stood behind President Lyndon Baines Johnson as the Texan signed into law the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Although not the first civil rights bill passed by Congress, it was the most comprehensive. King called the law’s passage “a great moment … something like the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation by Abraham Lincoln.” Johnson recognized King’s contributions to the law by gifting him a pen used to sign the historic legislation. A year later, as Johnson signed...

By Ken Hughes, Research Specialist, the Miller Center, University of Virginia Now that a full year has passed since the January 6, 2021, assault on the Capitol, the 2020 election and the republic, it is evident that the attack never really ended. Instead, it spread out to other, less visible, more vulnerable targets. Donald Trump had hoped to reverse his election loss in a single, decisive, dramatic confrontation between his supporters and the republic’s, broadcast live around the world. His plan backfired, filling our screens with vivid illustrations of authoritarianism’s most repugnant ills: chaos, lawlessness, violence, racism, fascism and...

By Gabe Osterhout, Research Associate, Idaho Policy Institute, Boise State University; and Lantz McGinnis-Brown, Research Associate, Idaho Policy Institute, Boise State University As Americans and their elected representatives debate who should be allowed to vote and what rules should govern eligibility and registration, one key issue isn’t getting much attention: the ability for people to vote in languages other than English. Communities with relatively high numbers of voting-age citizens with limited English-language proficiency tend to have lower voter turnout. This problem worsens when the people who are not proficient in English also don’t have very much education. They include...

By Suat Cubukcu, Professorial Lecturer, American University; Erdal Tekin, Professor Department of Public Administration and Policy, American University; Nusret Sahin, Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice, Stockton University; and Volkan Topalli, Professor of Criminal Justice, Georgia State University Without video evidence, it is unlikely we would have ever heard of George Floyd or witnessed the prosecution of his killer, a Minneapolis police officer. The recording of Floyd’s killing echoed the documentation in the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner, two Black men who were killed at the hands of police. The circulation of such videos – witness cellphones, dashcams and police body-worn...