What counts as fast for a court is slow for the rest of the world, and judges can give contradictory or vague rulings that delay final decisions into the future.
In this 1938 image, a Black boy uses a fountain marked ‘colored’ at a North Carolina county courthouse.
Getty Images
Travis Knoll, University of North Carolina – Charlotte
President Lyndon Johnson’s commencement address at Howard University in 1965 offered a compelling argument on the need for affirmative action. His policies have been challenged ever since.
In this Feb. 2, 1964, image, Bayard Rustin talks on a telephone from a church in Brooklyn, New York.
Patrick A. Burns/New York Times Co./Getty Images
Bayard Rustin led a long and complicated life dedicated to the fight for equal rights. Targeted by the FBI, Rustin became a close adviser to Martin Luther King Jr.
Voting rights supporters at a rally in Atlanta on Jan. 11, 2022.
Megan Varner/Getty Images
Digging deeply into the nation’s past can help illuminate the racial setbacks facing the US today.
President Lyndon B. Johnson, right, talks with Martin Luther King Jr. and other civil rights leaders in his White House office in Washington, D.C., Jan. 18, 1964.
AP Photo
MLK’s vision for nonviolence included abolishing what he called triple evils – racism, poverty and militarism.
President Lyndon Johnson signing the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which aimed to do away with racial discrimination in the law. But discrimination persisted.
AP file photo
A scholar of race and racism explains what critical race theory is – and how many people get it wrong.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo faces an investigation over an alleged pattern of sexually harassing and intimidating women employees.
Brendan McDermid/Pool/AFP/via Getty Images
Men accused of sexual harassment, including New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, often refer to their accomplishments in their responses. Their power is their defense, and it blinds them to their victims’ suffering.
People gather near the Stonewall Inn in New York City to celebrate the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling on LGBTQ workers’ rights.
John Lamparski/NurPhoto via Getty Images
Julie Novkov, University at Albany, State University of New York
Federal law now protects lesbians, gay men and transgender people from being fired or otherwise discriminated against at work. But there are more questions and court cases to come about their rights.
A protester raises a fist in New York’s Washington Square Park during a June 2, 2020 demonstration.
Ira L. Black/Corbis via Getty Images
The upcoming Supreme Court session will address notable cases about the rights of different groups. The cases go to the heart of how U.S. laws protect both individual and group rights.