WASHINGTON, DC – Today, Senators Dick Durbin (Ill.), Raphael Warnock (Ga.), Cory Booker (N.J.), Richard Blumenthal (Conn.), and Laphonza Butler (Calif.) reintroduced the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. This bill would restore a key provision of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 called the “coverage formula,” thereby requiring federal pre-approval of new voting laws before they are used by certain states and localities. In response, John Powers, Director of the Power and Democracy Program at Advancement Project, issued this statement: “Advancement Project applauds the reintroduction of ..read more

By Jenna Israel, Communications Intern As a young person, it often feels like there’s not a lot you can do to change a world that seems like it’s not listening to you. But for me, helping other people vote, engage their government, and make their voices heard is my activity of choice during my free time. It is empowering. One of the most heartbreaking things to hear when speaking to people in my community is that someone won’t vote. Sometimes it’s because they can’t. Maybe they’ve lost their right to vote as the result of incarceration. Or maybe they can’t get to the polling location because ..read more

By Erica Hilton, Digital Campaigns Strategist My family is not from Texas. I’m a Black woman from North Carolina whose ancestors are from across the Carolinas. My maternal fourth grandmother, Sabra, was enslaved on a plantation in New Hanover County, North Carolina in the 1800s. Records of my paternal ancestors from South Carolina and their families are lost due to a system of enslavement that robbed them of their personhood—and robbed my family of our history. Photo by Thomas de LUZE via Unsplash While Juneteenth specifically marks the day that enslaved people in Galveston, Texas finally le ..read more

By Ky’Eisha Penn, Staff Attorney Photo by Clay Banks via Unsplash Juneteenth is a day that we come together to celebrate the emancipation of Black people enslaved in and by our very nation. From 1619 to 2021––much has changed, but our fight for liberation from oppressive systems remain the same. As Freedom Day approaches, I reflect on the liberation struggle my ancestors endured and how their determination fuels me. I reflect on the life of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin. I reflect on the failed educational system and this country’s racist allegiance to white supremacist ideology that brought me ..read more

By Judith Browne Dianis, Executive Director Last month marked a year since George Floyd was murdered on a street in Minneapolis at the hands of the police. The video and his cries for his mother will forever be seared into my memory. George Floyd, unfortunately, was not the first, nor was he the last, person to die as the result of police violence. To many Americans, the cold stare of his murderer during the act, the pleas of the witnesses and the complicity of other officers was a breaking point. It was clear: things could never be the same. In the year since, Black-led protests across t ..read more

By Judith Browne Dianis, Executive Director For me, it was the shoes.  Thinking about my 18-year-old Black daughter, off at college, who wears those silly oversized plastic Crocs most every day, taking a moment to rejoice that she might know in the wake of the Derek Chauvin verdict that accountability for Black death can happen.  And then literally moments later, witnessing the footage of a white police officer killing a 16-year-old Black girl, Ma’Khia Bryant, in Columbus, Ohio — the officer’s body camera footage eventually revealing her motionless feet wearing the exact same ..read more

Advancement Project National Office Executive Director Judith Browne Dianis appear on DC Today to discuss the one-year anniversary of George Floyd’s murder on the Black news Channel The post Judith Browne Dianis on Black News Channel 5/25/21 appeared first on Advancement Project ..read more

Advancement Project has an inspired team of organizers, lawyers, dreamers and thinkers fighting for racial justice. One of our many contributors to the Movement is the Chairperson of our Board of Directors, Bill Lann Lee, who has had a distinguished legal career as a civil rights lawyer and advocate. Have you ever wanted to know more about the real people behind the work we do? Read on for an inspiring interview we had with Mr. Lee. Advancement Project National Office: You’ve had quite a journey from a working-class immigrant household in New York City to a long career in civil rights law ..read more

By Judith Browne Dianis, Executive Director One year ago, George Floyd was murdered by a police officer. He deserved to live on as more than a memory to his family and his community: he deserved life. Instead, his name was added to the long list written on our hearts—alongside Breonna Taylor, Botham Jean, Atatiana Jefferson, Adam Toledo, Sandra Bland and so many others whose lives ended at the hands of police. His murder was shocking, but it was also utterly routine. Over the last year, police have targeted, incarcerated and immiserated countless Black, Brown and poor people, people whose ..read more

By Jennifer Lai-Peterson, Power and Democracy Senior Attorney Photo by Jason Leung on Unsplash The following is an abridged version of this piece, you can read the full blog here. In early 2005, I moved to New Orleans to work alongside former members of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). While supporting their campaign, I found myself re-reading U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Marshall Harlan’s renowned dissent in Plessy v. Ferguson, the infamous 1896 decision legalizing racial segregation until the landmark Brown v. Board of Education overturned Plessy in 1954. I reme ..read more