State & Local News
Rodney King reflects on an up-down life since riot
We saw his face a bloody, pulpy mess. And in 1992, when the four Los Angeles police officers who beat him after a traffic stop were acquitted, it touched off anger that affected an entire generation. Now, 20 years later, this is the face of Rodney King, and this is what has happened to him [...]
Neighborhood watch shooter Zimmerman released from Fla. jail
In a low-key event, George Zimmerman was released from a Florida jail on $150,000 bail as he awaits his second-degree murder trial in the fatal shooting of unarmed teen Trayvon Martin. The neighborhood watch volunteer was wearing a brown jacket and blue jeans and carrying a paper bag as he walked out of the jail [...]
Black voters ask U.S. Supreme Court to hear appeal in S.C. redistricting case
Six black South Carolina voters on Monday asked the U.S. Supreme Court to hear an appeal over the state’s new congressional and state House districts. The court has not said whether it will take the case, which bypassed the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals. Earlier this month, a three-judge federal panel ruled that the state’s [...]
2013: Civil Rights 50th Year Commemoration
Mayor William Bell and the City of Birmingham are pleased to be collaborating with other great southern cities to honor the past and celebrate the future. Mayor William A. Bell, Sr. will join Mayor Harvey Johnson of Jackson, MI; Mayor A. C. Wharton Jr. of Memphis, TN; Mayor Vincent Gray of Washington, DC; Mayor Steve [...]
Civil rights groups, Democrats fight early-voting limits
More than half a dozen states have passed new laws to reduce early voting, setting up a clash with civil rights groups and Democrats who claim the rules could disenfranchise minority voters in the 2012 election for the White House and Congress. Among states with new restrictions: Wisconsin and Florida, presidential swing states that also [...]
