Front and Center | January 11
A round up what our staff have been reading, watching, and listening to this week so you can stay in the know with social justice news.
More than 1,700 congressmen once enslaved Black people. This is who they were and how they shaped the nation.
A ground-breaking database by The Washington Post exposes the lives of more than 1,700 members of U.S. Congress who were slaveholders, even up until the 20th century. Despite commonly held perceptions, enslavers in Congress hailed from all sides of the political spectrum and represented 37 states from New England to the west coast.
Canada Pledges $31.5 Billion to Settle Fight Over Indigenous Child Welfare System
In what will be the largest settlement in Canadian history, the Canadian government is pledging billions of dollars to fix a discriminatory child welfare system that continues to forcibly remove First Nations children from their families at a disproportionate rate.
At the height of child removal policies in the 20th century, First Nations children were often forcibly taken from their families and placed in boarding schools where hundreds eventually died and were buried in unmarked graves. Today, First Nations children continue to be affected by child removal practices spurred by this tragic history.
Chicago’s “Race-Neutral” Traffic Cameras Ticket Black and Latino Drivers the Most
A new ProPublica analysis found that traffic cameras disproportionately ticket black and Latino vehicle drivers. While some cities believe the economic burden created by disproportionate ticketing outweigh the safety benefits, others are keeping their cameras in place having found that the cameras can help reduce serious accidents.
Their Family Bought Land One Generation After Slavery. The Reels Brothers Spent Eight Years in Jail for Refusing to Leave it.
Brothers Melvin Davis and Licurtis Reels refused to leave the land purchased by their great-grandfather and passed down to them for generations by family, even though a development company claimed to have bought it decades ago. Although the decision cost the brothers eight years in jail, their predicament is not uncommon.
Tracing back to when Black landowners didn’t have access to courts, Heirs’ property, or the informal transfer of land between family members, is estimated to make up more than a third of black-owned land in the South worth more than $28 billion, but continues to remain largely unacknowledged in court.
*Stylistic elements are inserted by editors to highlight key points.
