Civil Rights
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Federal judge orders the restoration of exhibits on slavery to the President’s House in Philadelphia
In a Presidents’ Day ruling invoking 1984, a federal judge rejected the government’s authority to remove slavery exhibits from Philadelphia’s President’s House.
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US Capitol statue of teen civil rights leader Barbara Rose Johns to fill Robert E. Lee’s place
The U.S. Capitol will display a statue of a teenaged Barbara Rose Johns as she protested poor conditions at her segregated Virginia high school, a pointed replacement for a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee that was removed several years ago.
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Teacher from Pennsylvania jailed in Russia is formally designated as wrongfully detained
Marc Fogel, a history teacher from Pittsburgh, is serving a 14-year prison sentence after being arrested in August 2021 at a Russian airport and possessing what his family and supporters said was medically prescribed marijuana.
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Jewish family can have anti-hate yard signs after Montgomery County neighbor used antisemitic slur, court says
The state Supreme Court decided Simon and Toby Galapo were exercising their rights under the Pennsylvania Constitution when they erected protest signs on their property and pointed them squarely at the neighbor’s house in the Philadelphia suburbs with messages such as “Hitler Eichmann Racists,” “No Place 4 Racism” and “Woe to the Racists. Woe to…
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Opinion: To protect PA’s vulnerable, abused kids, fund CASA organizations who care for them
The Pennsylvania Court Appointed Special Advocates Association (CASA) is urging the PA General Assembly to allocate $3.6 million in the state budget to expand their critical advocacy program, which supports abused and neglected children through highly trained community volunteers, improving their outcomes in the child welfare system.
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Family of Black teen wrongly executed in 1931 sues Delaware County after 2022 exoneration
Alexander McClay Williams was convicted of murder in the October 1930 icepick stabbing of a white woman, even though there were no eyewitnesses and no evidence linked him to the crime. He was convicted by an all-white jury on January 7, 1931, and executed five months later.
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Sheetz hit with lawsuit for allegedly discriminating against minority job applicants
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed suit against Sheetz and two subsidiary companies, alleging the Altoona-based chain discriminated against Black, Native American and multiracial job seekers by automatically weeding out applicants whom the company deemed to have failed a criminal background check.
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VIDEO: PA Lawmaker talks about miscarriages and why storytelling is important
Pennsylvania State Senator Amanda Cappelletti explained the impact storytelling has when it comes to protecting reproductive rights at a roundtable in Harrisburg last month. “Storytelling humanizes people,” Cappelletti told The Keystone in an interview. Cappelletti then went on to talk about her two miscarriages and how sharing her story changed her relationship with some of…
