Civil Rights
Purported pain, dismissive politics
I’ve been a clinical chaplain in healthcare, involved for 15 years in the practical amelioration of peoples’ hurts—working with a patient, their community of care, and our team to address physical pain, material concerns, and any potential spiritual, existential, and emotional areas of disease with which folks might be contending. And while such work has […]
GOP lawmaker: TBI is investigating current and former DCS employees
A Republican lawmaker said during a public hearing this week that the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation is probing the conduct of current and former employees of the Department of Children’s Services – an investigation a TBI spokesperson later said she could neither confirm nor deny. “I’ve been made aware of a specific instance where the […]
DCS seeks immediate $26.6M to add suitable places for abused and neglected kids to stay
The Tennessee Department of Children’s Services is seeking an immediate infusion of $26.6 million from the state legislature to address a crisis in care that has left kids sleeping on office floors and in hospital beds because there are no other places for them. In making the ask on Monday before the House Finance, Ways, […]
Citizens deserve access to police video even when people don’t die
If the video footage from the Tyre Nichols beating in Memphis tells us anything, it’s that we need to keep protecting the tools that allow public accountability for corruption. Two bills in the Legislature last year sought to reduce a citizen’s ability to view body cam or other law enforcement video footage. One passed and […]
Transgender people in rural America struggle to find doctors willing or able to provide care
For Tammy Rainey, finding a health care provider who knows about gender-affirming care has been a challenge in the rural northern Mississippi town where she lives. As a transgender woman, Rainey needs the hormone estrogen, which allows her to physically transition by developing more feminine features. But when she asked her doctor for an estrogen […]
Legislation aims at averting excessive jailing of juveniles
Still stinging from a $6 million settlement against Rutherford County over child arrests, state Rep. Mike Sparks is pushing legislation he believes would have stopped the aggressive lockup of children. Sparks, a Smyrna Republican, is preparing legislation prohibiting interviews or interrogations of children without the presence of legal counsel, parent, guardian or custodian. In addition, […]
Know better, do better: a civil rights reading list
Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated two months before my fourth birthday in 1968 and Robert Kennedy, former U.S. attorney general and Democratic presidential candidate, was assassinated the day after I turned four. I remember Kennedy’s death, although not King’s, despite that King’s occurred in Memphis, just a couple of hundred miles west of […]
Spencer Fane Bone McAllester to host 22nd MLK Fellowship Breakfast in Nashville
Spencer Fane Bone McAllester will hold its 22nd Annual MLK Fellowship Breakfast on January 16 with featured speaker, U.S. Sen. Cory Booker, Democrat of New Jersey, at the Tennessee State Museum. The event is held each year on the federal holiday honoring Dr. Martin Luther King. The law firm’s website says that the event “celebrates […]
Nonprofit report urges Tennessee DCS to pivot from institutionalizing kids
A new report by a pair of nonprofit organizations urges the Department of Children’s Services to pivot away from institutionalizing troubled youth to instead providing needed services to families. The report, released Wednesday by Disability Rights Tennessee and the Youth Law Center, examines the state’s youth justice system overseen by the troubled department, which is […]
Club Q survivors at U.S. House hearing denounce anti-LGBTQ rhetoric
Survivors of a deadly attack at an LGBTQ nightclub in Colorado Springs and other advocates told a U.S. House panel Wednesday that political rhetoric and policy fights dehumanize LGBTQ people and contribute to such violence. Democrats and Republicans on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee largely sympathized with the survivors, but drew different conclusions […]
Biden signs law extending marriage protections to same-sex and interracial couples
WASHINGTON — Same-sex and interracial couples had many of their marriage rights codified Tuesday when President Joe Biden signed the bipartisan marriage equality bill during a ceremony attended by thousands outside the White House. In a brief speech, Biden told supporters on the South Lawn that “marriage is a simple proposition — who do you […]
Marriage equality bill heads to Biden’s desk following bipartisan U.S. House vote
WASHINGTON — The U.S. House overwhelmingly approved a marriage equality bill Thursday that would ensure same-sex and interracial couples continue holding many of the rights they have now, should the U.S. Supreme Court overturn the cases that established those constitutional protections. The measure now heads to the desk of President Joe Biden, who plans to […]