This archive collects 125 solutions-journalism stories covering measurable progress on racial justice — from policy reforms and landmark court rulings to community-led initiatives and shifts in institutional practice. These articles focus on what is working, who is making it happen, and how change takes root in real communities. Reading here means following the evidence, not just the aspiration.
Legislation passed by the Metropolitan King County Council on Monday calls for the county’s Department of Public Defense to provide attorneys to families participating in inquests no matter their financial status.
Statues dedicated to Confederate heroes were swiftly removed across Baltimore, just days after violence broke out over the removal of a similar monument in neighboring Virginia.
African Americans have made significant gains in life expectancy, and the mortality gap between white and black Americans has been cut in half since 1999.
Workers dismantle an an obelisk dedicated to the Battle of Liberty Place, which commemorated whites who tried to topple a biracial post-Civil War government.
The money will be deployed via three streams to tackle the different issues facing women of color in distinct ways.
Flint water crisis funding cleared the U.S. Senate on September 15, 2016, by a 95-3 vote, sending $270 million to a city whose children had been poisoned by their own tap water. The package funded pipe replacement and a national registry to track affected kids. It later became the template for much broader federal lead pipe efforts.
Maricopa County, Arizona, 2016: federal prosecutors announced criminal contempt charges against Sheriff Joe Arpaio for defying a judge’s order to halt immigration patrols that had been ruled racially discriminatory against Latino drivers. By then, taxpayers had already spent $48 million on the case. For a community that had documented the harm for years, it was a rare moment of formal accountability.
Barack Obama won the U.S. presidency on November 4, 2008, becoming the first African American elected to the office. More than 134 million Americans voted — the highest turnout in generations — and Obama carried states Democrats hadn’t won in decades. For a country that had legally barred Black citizens from voting within living memory, the night marked a genuine milestone.
South Africa’s first fully democratic election, held on April 27, 1994, ended nearly half a century of apartheid and brought Nelson Mandela to the presidency. Voters of all races lined up for hours, some for miles, to cast their first-ever ballot. It remains one of the modern era’s most closely watched peaceful transitions from authoritarian rule.
The United Democratic Front launched on August 20, 1983, when roughly 10,000 people filled a community hall in Mitchell’s Plain near Cape Town. Delegates from 575 organizations — unions, churches, student groups, civic associations — united behind one slogan: “UDF Unites, Apartheid Divides.” It became one of the broadest nonracial coalitions in South Africa’s long struggle against apartheid.
