by Alex Mikulich, Ph. D.

In September 2011, Louisiana Catholics Committed to 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, co-authored with Sophie Cull of the Louisiana Capital Appeals Project, was part of the campaign launch.

In her new book, The Imperative of Integration, University of Michigan professor of Philosophy and Women’s Studies Elizabeth Anderson finds that racial integration is an imperative for racial justice. Her study finds that non-integrationist remedies—such as multiculturalist celebrations of racial diversity or economic investments in de facto segregated schools and neighborhoods or more rigorous enforcement of anti-discrimination law—are insufficient because they fail to address the full range of effects of white-black segregation on group inequality.

In Twenty to One: Wealth Gaps Rise to Record Highs between Whites, Blacks, and Hispanics, the Pew Research Center reports that the median wealth of white households is 20 times that of black households and 18 times that of Hispanic households. The July 2011 report analyzes newly available government data from 2009.

Dr. Alex Mikulich, Research Fellow

“Is it a prerequisite for jury service that you do not object to the Confederate flag flying outside the courthouse?”¹ This is a real and legal question 150 years after the Civil War. The Louisiana Supreme Court and the Caddo Parish District Attorney seemed to assume that objection to the symbol of slavery constitutes bias on behalf of a potential juror, in the hearing of a death-penalty appeal on May 9, 2011.

Family Wealth Critical to Child Opportunity

by Fred Kammer, SJ

A new study by the Insight Center for Community Economic Development in Oakland reminds us once again that family income is not the only indicator of the well-being of people in the household, especially children. Family assets—wealth—are critical to child development, good health, good education, security, and dreams of a better future.

 Two recent studies featured by the Economic Policy Institute help explain lower earnings of African American men than their white counterparts.

Many Americans assume that due to the Civil Rights legislation of the 1960s that the United States is in compliance with the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD). This is not the case. The U.S. Human Rights Network provides a fact sheet that details how U.S. law, through several recent Supreme Court rulings, call into question U.S. compliance with CERD. The fact sheet is online here.

by Alex Mikulich

People are on the move all over the globe! Large-scale migration is one of the most important social developments of our time; and the increasing growth in population and changes in demographics are exciting and challenging. However, too many societies have proven to be ill equipped to handle the rapidly changing populations. As a result, communities all over the globe are struggling with the serious implications of large-scale migration. What’s fueling this large wave of migration? What are the social justice issues involved? What is the Christian response to immigration?