Fifty years ago this month, the Freedom Rides began.   While the Supreme Court ruled that segregation in interstate commerce, including bus terminals, was illegal, the laws were not being enforced.  Because the law failed to act, people of conscience, courage, and determination acted instead.

Resistance to desegregation was such that those who got on buses risked their lives.  The Freedom Riders, who were both African American and white, were arrested and attacked on the bus route.  

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This month, there are many celebrations of the Freedom Riders, including a celebration at the new Freedom Riders Museum in Montgomery, Alabama, and at a Freedom Riders Reunion and Conference in Jackson, Mississippi. There will be time for reminiscing, reflecting, and reconnecting. From honors bestowed on Congressman John Lewis at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies Dinner in Washington, D.C., earlier this month, to an Oprah show featuring the Freedom Riders, to these celebrations and reunions, the contribution of the Freedom Riders will be recognized, honored, celebrated.
 

Read more at The Chicago Defender and The St. Louis American.

Climate change is more than an environmental issue. It is a human rights and economic justice issue. Why? Because though climate change impacts all of us, different nations, and different communities within nations, experience the effects of climate change in varying ways, some worse than others.

This point was clearly made at last month's U.N. climate change conference in Copenhagen, where it quickly became evident that the rich and powerful nations — particularly the U.S. and members of the European Union— dictate the debate at the expense of poorer countries. That needs to change.

I was part of the only African-American delegation at the conference as a member of the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies' Commission to Engage African Americans on Climate Change. We were there because African Americans have a dog in this fight. We produce less greenhouse gas emissions (about 20% less than other Americans, according to a Congressional Black Caucus Foundation study), but we bear a greater burden in terms of pollution and climate change.

 

Read more at USA Today.