Search

Reports on the ruling of a United States federal appeals court that police officers did not violate the Constitution when they tried to stop every Afro-American man in town in 1992 after a woman was robbed by young Afro-American man. Reason the police tactics did not constitute discriminatory racial profiling; Why the stops did not violate the plaintiffs' 14th Amendment rights to equal protection; Reason the stops were not considered illegal seizures.

Opinion. Comments on obstacles to the legal effort to bring more blacks into the mainstream of politics and education in the United States. Supreme Court's striking down of Congressional district lines in North Carolina and Texas on the ground that race was a predominant factor; Court's decline to hear the Hopwood case, where state universities could not consider race as a factor in admissions.

Reports on the United States Supreme Court case regarding Harold Plessy, an African-American, who was arrested in the nineteenth century for refusing to move from a first class seat on a train. Court's ruling; Black attorneys' concerns.

Discusses the article by Joel Williamson, professor of humanities at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, in the spring 1997 issue of `The Journal of American History.' Article about why Williamson and other historians have ignored the late 19th-century lynchings of black people in the Southern United States; The articles on whether or not to run the piece; Comments from the journal's editor, David Thelen.

Reports on the issue of the handing of longer prison terms for Afro-Americans than whites. Figures on the disparity among states; Responses from officials of the US Sentencing Commission; Remarks from Judge Williams Wilkins.

Reports on a Supreme Court ruling that African Americans who allege that they have been singled out as targets for federal drug charges must first show that whites in similar circumstances have not been prosecuted. Implications on prison terms for crack cocaine that fall disproportionately on blacks; Comments from some judges.