Civil Rights
Streetsblog Basics
Naomi Doerner on How Street Safety Advocates Can Support Racial Justice
When a police officer in Falcon Heights, Minnesota, shot and killed Philando Castile earlier this month, the encounter began with a traffic stop. The stop fit a pattern: Castile had been pulled over many times before -- 46 times in 13 years -- but few of those citations were for dangerous driving. More prevalent were stops for minor issues like vehicle defects or misplaced license plates -- the type of justifications that police are more likely to use when stopping black and Latino drivers throughout the country.
July 22, 2016
The Right to Peaceful Assembly vs. the “Right” to Convenient Motoring
Demonstrations against police brutality spilled onto streets and highways in American cities this weekend, with protesters stopping traffic in Baton Rouge, Memphis, St. Paul, Los Angeles, and Oakland.
July 11, 2016
House Panel Calls on U.S. DOT to Measure Access to Economic Opportunity
A bill working its way through Congress may prompt federal officials to get a better handle on how transportation projects help or hinder access to jobs, education, and health care.
May 27, 2016
Civil Rights Groups Challenge Maryland Gov. Hogan’s Red Line Cancellation
Back in June, newly elected Maryland Governor Larry Hogan unilaterally cancelled a transit expansion project that Baltimore had been planning for a decade, transferring the state's promised investment to road projects in more rural parts of the state.
December 21, 2015
Police Profiling Is a Safe Streets Issue
Cross-posted from the Safe Routes to School National Partnership
March 16, 2015
How Does the Threat of Police Violence Affect How You Use the Street?
When the news came out yesterday that a Staten Island grand jury had failed to indict officer Daniel Pantaleo for killing Eric Garner with an illegal chokehold, like many people I found the outcome difficult to comprehend. With clear video evidence showing that Pantaleo broke NYPD protocol and a coroner's report certifying that Garner's death was a homicide, this grand jury should have reached the conclusion that had eluded grand jurors in the Michael Brown case in St. Louis County: There should be a trial to determine if Pantaleo had committed a crime. But apparently that's not how our justice system works.
December 4, 2014
Documentary to Explore Racial Discrimination in Transportation Planning
Beavercreek, Ohio, nabbed its own infamous place in civil rights history last year, when the Federal Highway Administration ruled that the suburb had violated anti-discrimination laws by blocking bus service from nearby Dayton.
October 29, 2014
How 3 Communities Fought Discriminatory Transportation Policies
This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act, which outlawed discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.
July 3, 2014
Study: Civil Rights Protections Lack Teeth When It Comes to Transportation
American transportation policy has a woeful history of civil rights abuses. For a good part of the 1950s and '60s, using highways to level black neighborhoods was a matter of national policy. And the white flight and segregation that those highways engendered have left a legacy that continues to shape much of America in the present day.
February 14, 2014