This archive tracks real progress on racial justice — from landmark court rulings and policy reforms to community-led initiatives that expand rights and opportunity. Stories here document what’s working, where, and how, drawing on reporting from the U.S. and around the world.
The likenesses of music legend Johnny Cash and civil rights icon Daisy Lee Gatson Bates will appear in the hallways of the U.S. Capitol in marble form, replacing two Confederate figures from the Civil War.
Lori Lightfoot, a political newcomer, was elected the first black female mayor of Chicago. Lightfoot, who will also become the first openly gay mayor of the third-largest U.S. city, appealed to voters who are tired of politics as usual.
There are more women than ever before, and a new generation of Muslims, Latinos, Native Americans and African-Americans in the House creating what academics call a reflective democracy, more aligned with the population of the United States.
The City of Seattle on Friday filed a motion asking the court to vacate hundreds of marijuana possession convictions going back three decades and adversely impacting people of color.
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.
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.
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.
