civil rights
Simon Glik, who wound up arrested when he used his cell phone to video a drug bust on Tremont Street along the Common in 2007, yesterday filed suit in US District Court, alleging his First, Fourth and Fourteenth Amendment rights were violated by police.
Glik was also charged with "aiding escape" of a prisoner and disturbing the peace. All the charges against Glik were dismissed in court - including the charge of violating the wiretapping law, which he says was meant to cover secret taping of private conversations, not public recording of events out in the open, such as an arrest on the Common near Tremont Street.
Complete complaint.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-q6U-OQo_g&feature=channel_page
Press Pass TV looks at the importance of student rights and legal education.
January 21, 2009: An Act of Faith
Massachusetts Communities of Faith Speak Out for Transgender Equality
Keshet and The Interfaith Coalition for Transgender Equality invite you to help kick off a faith-based campaign in support of a civil rights bill for transgender equality.
Join with clergy, lay leaders, and community members from many faiths and spiritual traditions to celebrate our work and learn how you can take action and help pass a bill that will make Massachusetts a more just state for everyone.
January 21, 2009
7:00 - 9:00 pm Read more
By now, everyone's heard that Governor Patrick's daughter is a n out and proud lesbian. Good (or planned?) timing with the Boston Pride festivities this weekend. There's a full article on Towleroad, one of my favorite bloggers out there. Read more
Currently, civil rights are a Massachusetts hot button, with gay marriage and Jimmy Kelly penatrating the headlines and blog fodder.
Today being Martin Luther King Jr. Day, a day of reflection on civil rights, I present two brief snapshots from Boston's voluminous civil rights history:
First, many people don't know that Dr. King first met Coretta Scott, a New England Conservatory student, during his time pursing a doctorate at BU. While here, he rented a room at 397 Mass Ave, where a small plaque still stands to commemorate his time in the Hub.
Dr. King was assassinated April 4, 1968; eight years and one day later, Boston was drenched in busing-induced racial turmoil, and from a rally at city hall was born an iconic, Pulitzer Prize winning photo: Joseph Rakes, a white student spearing black attorney Ted Landsmark with an American flag.
State Senator William Owens (D-Boston) stated on the WGBH 10 O'Clock News, April 6, 1976:
"People of color are not safe to come here to Boston and we are asking people across the country, of color, to stay away'.
WGBH has archival news casts from that day:
Click here to watch the original report on the vicious Landsmark assault and Senator Owens statements.
Also: Ted Landsmark's press conference.
[Quicktime]
[Note: The WGBH archive contains a treasure trove of old news clips from 1976-1991. I know there are a few people here that will, like myself, get lost for hours there.]
A couple thousand people marched from the First Church in Roxbury to Boston Common today to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Selma March and the Voting Rights Act and to push for re-authorization of the bill, which gave Southern blacks the right to vote unhindered for the first time since Reconstruction. The march also commemorates a similar Roxbury-to-the-Common march led by the Rev. Martin Luther King in 1965 to protest school desegregation in Boston.
The march began with speeches at the church, including one by U.S. Rep. John Lewis of Georgia. In 1965, Lewis, then 23, tried to lead a march from Selma to Montgomery, Ala. to push for voting rights. He and other protesters were beaten by Alabama state troopers and Selma police.
"We must say we will never, ever forget what happened!"
Watch Lewis describe the Pettis Bridge attack (5.5M QuickTime video). Read more
On Sunday, marchers will commemorate the historic civil-rights march from Selma, walking from the First Church in Roxbury to the Common, starting at 1 p.m. More details. Via Philocrites.
Meanwhile, David remembers Rosa Parks:
My children can't imagine what it was like before Rosa Parks. They are appalled when we tell them. ...
Amy: Thank you, Rosa...
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