The Audacity of Eucharistic Hope and the Legacy of Lynching
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By Alex Mikulich, Ph.D.
The role of race in increased state corrections spending
The Sentencing Project reports that a study by Christian Breunig and Rose Erns
Only two percent of high school seniors know about Brown v. Board of Education
Only 2% of 12,000 high school seniors could answer a simple question about the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision—“and that’s no surprise,” finds a new comprehensive study by the Southern Poverty Law Center on the state of civil rights education in all fifty states plus the District of Columbia.
Catholic Social Thought and the Death Penalty
By Alex Mikulich, Ph.D.
The U.S. Catholic Bishops, in their 2005 pastoral letter A Culture of Life and the Death Penalty, reaffirm the teaching of Pope John Paul II, of the Roman Catholic magisterium, and of U.S. Catholic Bishops since 1979, that “the death penalty is unnecessary and unjustified in our time and circumstances.”
Four fundamental points inform their judgment:
Louisiana’s Historic Opportunity to End the Death Penalty and Affirm Life
By Alex Mikulich, Ph.D.
In September 2011, Louisiana Catholics Committed to the Repeal of the Death Penalty publicly launched its campaign to end the death penalty in Louisiana. The Louisiana Conference of Catholic Bishops initiated this campaign in 2010. This essay highlights key findings of a comprehensive study of Louisiana’s use of the death penalty that I have conducted over the past year. The full study, coauthored with Sophie Cull of the Louisiana Capital Appeals Project, was part of the campaign’s launch.
My Experience in Immigration Detention
By Omar Hassan
What It Means to Be American—Public Attitudes on Diversity Ten Years after 9/11
Ten years after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, a major national survey by the Public Religion Research Institute finds America continuing to struggle with what it means to be American and wrestling with how to resolve political, religious and ethnic differences including issues of security, tolerance, and pluralism. Specific topics include relations with Muslims, ambivalence on the subject of immigration, support for deportation of illegal immigrants, but even more solid support for the basic tenets of the DREAM Act: allowing illegal immigrants brought to the U.S.
"Discipline Policies, Successful Schools and Racial Justice"
“Discipline Policies, Successful Schools and Racial Justice,” a study by Daniel J. Losen of the Civil Rights Project finds significant disparities in school discipline that breaks down along racial, gender, and disability lines. The study is available here and it finds that discipline “may have a harmful and racially disparate impact.”
Four New Studies on Trends in Race and Poverty
New Assault on Voting Rights across the Country
“The long, vicious assault on voting rights in America” continues in 2011 writes Gary L. Flowers for the Louisiana Weekly. At least thirteen states have curtailed voting rights by requiring proof of citizenship (Kansas and Alabama), restricting the ability of nonprofits to register voters (Texas and Florida), reducing the early voting period (Georgia, Ohio, Tennessee, and West Virginia), repealing election day registration (Maine), and requiring photo identification at polling places (Hawaii, Idaho, Indiana, Louisiana, Michigan, and South Carolina).