In episode 56 of The Activist Files, we’ll hear a discussion sparked by the 10th anniversary of the historic ruling in our stop-and-frisk case, Floyd, et. al v. City of New York. The Center for Constitutional Rights, together with NYU Review of Law & Social Change, NYU’s Ending the Prison Industrial Complex, and NYU’s National Lawyers Guild Chapter, brought together law students, lawyers, organizers, and impacted community members for a one-day symposium on November 3, 2023. Together, they reflected on lessons learned in the last decade of struggle for police reform and accountability, and ..read more

In the latest episode of the Activist Files, Bertha Justice Fellow Zee Scout speaks to five plaintiffs in our case Women in Struggle, et al. v. Bain, et al., recorded on the ground just before the National March in Florida to Protect Trans Youth and a Speakout for Trans Lives that took place in Orlando on October 7. Hundreds turned out to protest the state’s violent and unconstitutional laws and spoke out against the wave of anti-trans bills, which attendees linked to a longstanding history of capitalist and imperialist domination in this country. Ahead of the march, participants in this histo ..read more

On Episode 54 of the Activist Files, Bertha Justice Fellow Zee Scout speaks with Ashley Diamond, a civil rights activist, who made a pivotal choice on the eve of her trial in January against the Georgia Department of Corrections for Eighth Amendment violations of inadequate healthcare and sexual assault due to officials placing her in a male prison: She voluntarily dismissed her case to focus on healing. Since then, however, Ashley has struggled to access healthcare, therapy, and housing, because all of these necessities are inherently more challenging to obtain a ..read more

This year marks the 90th anniversary of our longtime ally and current partner, the Highlander Research and Education Center, the storied school that’s helped nurture the Black freedom struggle and other social movements across the south. For this month’s episode of the Activist Files, co-executive directors Ash-Lee Henderson and Allyn Maxfield-Steele chat with Emily Early and Jess Vossberg from our Southern Regional Office about Highlander’s singular role as a training ground and meeting spot – the place where Rosa Parks took a workshop, Martin Luther King spoke, and John Lewis had his first i ..read more

How do attacks on trans organizing and rights impact related movements for bodily autonomy, reproductive justice, and liberation? On episode 51 of "The Activist Files," our Communications Assistant Lexi Webster talks with Imara Jones, award-winning journalist, content creator and thought leader, founder of TransLash Media, and host of the TransLash podcast, and Diamond Stylz, activist, media maker, executive director of Black Trans Women Inc., and host of the Marsha’s Plate podcast, about how the work of movements for trans justice can inform social justice organizing on all liberation struggl ..read more

On the 50th episode of “The Activist Files", legal worker Sadé Evans speaks with Helen D. Noel. Helen is an United States Air Force Chief Master Sergeant retiree, accomplished author, keynote speaker, and transformational consultant known for her nonjudgmental stance and radical coaching for others experiencing traumatic stress. This episode will discuss Helen’s 12-year journey to learn about the Rosenwald Fund study in efforts to understand the effects it may have had on her family and thousands of other African-American families. Helen is calling on the government to formally apologize for t ..read more

What happens to a predominantly Black community when its government officials prioritize profit over health and legacy? On the 49th episode of “The Activist Files", legal worker Sadé Evans speaks with Dr. Joy Banner and Jo Banner of “The Descendants project”, a non-profit organization that advocates for descendants of people who were enslaved in Louisiana’s River Parishes. In honor of Earth Day, this discussion centers the founders of the Descendants Project as they speak out against corporate greed and environmental racism in Wallace, Louisiana, largely known as Cancer Alley.  This episo ..read more

How has Black feminism ushered in our current understanding and practice of abolition? On the 48th episode of the Activist Files, advocacy associate maya finoh speaks with Andrea Ritchie, an attorney, author, organizer, and co-founder of Interrupting Criminalization and In Our Names Network, who has been documenting, organizing, advocating, litigating, and agitating around policing and criminalization of Black cis/trans women and girls and trans and gender non-conforming people for the past three decades. maya and Andrea discuss what it’s like being ahead of the curve on these concepts; why it ..read more

On the Black History Month episode of the Activist Files, Center for Constitutional Rights board member Meena Jagannath speaks with Rob Robinson, a formerly homeless community organizer and housing activist who has worked with social movements all over the world. Rob discusses how his personal experiences have shaped his political outlook, how he hopes to change people’s fundamental relationship to land and housing, and how, throughout American history, housing has been a primary means of oppressing Black, brown, and low-income communities. He also discusses efforts to fight back, including th ..read more

Center for Constitutional Rights Advocacy Program Manager Aliya Hussain, Senior Managing Attorney Shayana Kadidal, and Senior Attorney Wells Dixon answer questions about the state of Guantánamo after 20 years operating as an offshore prison for Muslim men and boys in the so-called war on terror. We marked the 20th anniversary with a virtual rally, op-eds, media interviews, and an event that we organized, Guantánamo, Off the Record: 20 Years in the Fight. For that event, we collected questions to find out what people really wanted to know. In this episode, the three delve into those topics, fro ..read more