These are the first large-scale reforms since the Black Lives Matter movement started in 2013.
Updated Oct 1, 2020 - Politics & PolicyThe coronavirus, rising social unrest, inequality and political polarization threaten the fabric of the U.S.
Jun 3, 2020 - Politics & PolicyEven without a legal classification, calling dissenters "terrorists" could unleash an arsenal of spying.
Jun 3, 2020 - TechnologyThis crisis has moments we’ve never seen before.
Jun 3, 2020 - Politics & PolicyPolice brutality, COVID-19, and economic pain are hitting African Americans disproportionately and all at once.
May 31, 2020 - Politics & PolicyPolice violence and a host of other problems have all been caused by unresolved systemic abuses.
May 30, 2020 - Economy & BusinessA memorial to George Floyd outside the Cup Foods corner store where he died last March. Photo: Nicholas Pfosi/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Minneapolis voters will be able to weigh in on the city's police department on the local ballot, the Minnesota Supreme Court ruled Thursday.
Why it matters: The proposed charter amendment was spurred by mass protests against police brutality after George Floyd's death last year. It would replace the city's police department with a new Department of Public Safety that "could include" police officers "if necessary."
A demonstration over George Floyd’s death on June 3, 2020 in Los Angeles, California. Photo: Mario Tama via Getty Images
The California legislature on Thursday gave final approval to a bill barring certain life-threatening face-down holds that can lead to asphyxia.
Why it matters: The Angelo Quinto Act, named after the Filipino American Navy vet who died in Antioch last December after police allegedly knelt on his neck for five minutes, expands upon the chokeholds ban instituted in the state following George Floyd’s murder.
Photo: Mark Wilson/Getty Images
The Justice Department has agreed to review the practices of the Columbus, Ohio, police department following several fatal shootings of Black people in the city, Mayor Andrew Ginther announced Thursday.
Why it matters: The nature of the review differs from that of the "pattern or practice" probes the department has undertaken in Phoenix and Minneapolis. Those typically end with a civil lawsuit by the DOJ to compel departments to change their practices.
Protesters march in Boston as one holds up a painting of Ahmaud Arbery. Photo: Erin Clark/The Boston Globe via Getty Images
A Georgia grand jury on Thursday indicted a former prosecutor on charges of misconduct related to the investigation into the death of 25-year-old Ahmaud Arbery, Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr announced in a press release.
Why it matters: Arbery's death was one of the catalysts for nationwide Black Lives Matter protests last summer.
Sheneen McClain, center, mother of Elijah McClain, speaks in Oct. 1, 2019, surrounded by family, friends and legal counsel. Photo: Andy Cross/The Denver Post via Getty Images
A Colorado grand jury returned a 32-count indictment against police officers and paramedics in the 2019 death of Elijah McClain, a 23-year-old Black man.
Driving the news: The grand jury charged each of the three officers and two paramedics with manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide, the state’s attorney general announced Wednesday.
Photo: Chandler Cullotta c/o Creative Loafing Tampa Bay
The peaceful nature of protests and acts of law enforcement against protesters might be banned from discussion in an upcoming Tampa trial for last year's Fourth of July Black Lives Matter protesters.
Why it matters: Creative Loafing's reporting tells a starkly different story of the day than what prosecutors may be trying to portray at trial.
A "Stand Up and Be Counted" U.S. census rally for Latinos in Langley Park, Md. Photo: Ricky Carioti/The Washington Post via Getty Images
The number of U.S. Latinos identifying as multiracial soared during the last decade, while those identifying as solely white dropped significantly, according to the latest census.
Why it matters: The dramatic shift in racial identity among Latinos came after the census offered more options in 2020, giving Latinos the opportunity to officially embrace Indigenous and Black backgrounds.
Photo: Erik McGregor/LightRocket via Getty Images
The U.S. incarceration rate in 2019 dropped to its lowest since 1995, according to new data from the Bureau of Justice Statistics.
Why it matters: Mass incarceration has gained prominence as a criminal and racial justice issue in recent years, with activists and lawmakers calling it a "stain on our democracy." Black people are vastly overrepresented in U.S. prisons.
Sherrilyn Ifill speaks in New York in 2018. Photo: Bennett Raglin/Getty Images
Sherrilyn Ifill, president of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and an influential voice on racial discrimination and civil rights, plans a book from Penguin Press in late 2023.
The publisher calls it "an unflinching diagnosis of how America’s ongoing embrace of white supremacy has weakened our country’s institutions and brought American democracy to the point of crisis."
Freshly hatched caterpillars of gypsy moths on the bark of a red oak. Photo: Sebastian Willnow/picture alliance via Getty Images
Bugs, birds, fish and plants with names linked to white supremacists may be renamed, as science confronts its own ties to systemic racism.
Why it matters: The national reckoning was inevitably going to pass this way. The sciences have long underrepresented and erected barriers of entry to people of color and there’s a concerted effort for a reset under way in academia, research and hiring.