by James Melson | May 19, 2021 | 2021, Weekly Reflection
Sixty years ago this month, in May 1961, Black and white people known as the Freedom Riders put their bodies and lives on the line for racial justice. They tested a 1960 Supreme Court decision (Boynton v. Virginia) that banned segregation in interstate transportation...
by James Melson | May 12, 2021 | 2021, Weekly Reflection
Over the last few weeks, several state legislators have introduced bills to outlaw the teaching of Critical Race Theory (CRT). The rationale for such legislation is that CRT is divisive and anti-American. This criticism is often based on stereotypes and misinformation...
by James Melson | May 5, 2021 | 2021, Weekly Reflection
On May 6, 1882, Congress passed and President Chester A. Arthur signed The Chinese Exclusion Act. It was the first major legislation banning immigration by a specific group of people as well as preventing naturalization and citizenship for Chinese people already in...
by James Melson | Apr 28, 2021 | 2021, Weekly Reflection
In several southern states, Monday was a state holiday – Confederate Memorial Day. After all the attention on our nation’s need to reckon with our history of racial injustice since the murder of George Floyd on May 25, 2020, it is amazing that any state...
by James Melson | Apr 21, 2021 | 2021, Weekly Reflection
Pieta by Tylonn J. Sawyer The guilty verdicts in the George Floyd murder trial brought a momentary sense of relief and vindication that it is possible to achieve a measure of justice in a case involving the police killing of an unarmed Black man. Yet there is also the...
by James Melson | Apr 14, 2021 | 2021, Weekly Reflection
This week our nation is reeling from the combined impact of three tragic events of police brutality against black men – the George Floyd murder trial, the abuse of Lt. Caron Nazario during a traffic stop in Virginia, and the killing of Daunte Wright during a...
