Civil Rights

Civil rights mean equal protections and opportunities under the law, and are a vital part of human rights and for the functioning of a democracy. They include liberties such as the right to vote, the right to a trial, and the right to access government services and education.

Coretta Scott King’s Influence on the Civil Rights Movement: An Excerpt From ‘King of the North’

PUBLISHED 3/25/2025 by

An excerpt from King of the North: Martin Luther King Jr.’s Life of Struggle Outside the South:

“Women have been the backbone of the whole civil rights movement,” Coretta Scott King stressed in a 1966 interview with New Lady magazine. The national media, like most politicians and pundits of the time, had trained the spotlight on the male leaders like her husband, missing the many women that had envisioned, led and organized the movements burgeoning around the country. They could not conceive of Coretta Scott King as Martin Luther King’s political partner. She later lamented how she was “made to sound like an attachment to a vacuum cleaner, the wife of Martin, then the widow of Martin, all of which I was proud to be. But I was never just a wife, nor a widow. I was always more than a label.”  

A Dangerous Rollback: The Trump Administration’s Attack on Student Civil Rights

PUBLISHED 3/24/2025 by

Betrayal would be the simplest way to describe the Trump administration’s open disregard for the Department of Education and its Office for Civil Rights.

A betrayal of the department’s initial mission to advance education equity, a betrayal of the vital oversight the department was built to provide, and—perhaps worst of all—a betrayal of the countless students, families, and communities who continue to entrust the department to respect and protect students’ rights and well-being.

Our collective work remains anchored in the powerful vision and strategies we’ve been building for decades. Communities across the country are simultaneously defending vital protections while implementing transformative approaches to schooling that center belonging, equity and student well-being.

Education Is a Right

PUBLISHED 3/19/2025 by

The Trump administration is trying to gut the Department of Education and divert funds to charter, private and religious schools that won’t be held accountable. This move threatens the progress we’ve made through civil rights efforts, especially in making schools more integrated and fair. The dismantling of key federal protections and funding will disproportionately hurt low-income students, students with disabilities, and communities already struggling.

We need to stand up, demand better resources for public schools, and refuse to let these harmful changes happen. We’ve fought for this before, and we can do it again.

Amid Right-Wing Attacks on Education, the American Association of University Professors Organizes for Academic Freedom

PUBLISHED 3/14/2025 by

When the right-wing Heritage Foundation released its Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise—better known as Project 2025—in 2023, its authors laid out a comprehensive framework for undercutting democratic governance. Moreover, its authors made no secret of their antipathy to both public education and trade unions, putting the National Labor Relations Act and Fair Labor Standards Act in their crosshairs. They also made it clear that they support the elimination of the Department of Labor Women’s Bureau which works to ensure workplace safety and increase opportunities for female job advancement. 

And then there’s education, pre-K through college. The Heritage authors put forward an agenda that includes broadscale book bans and curricular limitations on classes in African American, Latinx, LGBTQIA+, Feminist, Ethnic, Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies. In addition, they support the cancellation of the federal student loan program; the revocation of Title IX policies meant to protect students from sex-based harassment, discrimination and violence; and an end to faculty tenure.

Afghan Women Are Trapped Between Two Prisons: Home and Society

PUBLISHED 2/25/2025 by

“Hopelessness echoes from their [Afghan women’s] voices.”

Since the fall of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan in 2021, Afghan women have been systematically erased from education, employment, and public life, making Afghanistan the only country where girls above sixth grade are barred from school. Once vital contributors to the nation’s progress, women are now trapped in a cycle of oppression that not only devastates their futures but also weakens Afghanistan’s economy and global standing. The world must take urgent action to combat this gender apartheid and support Afghan women in their fight for basic human rights.

Beyond Affirmative Action: Why Gender Bias in College Admissions Still Favors Men

PUBLISHED 2/12/2025 by

The recent Supreme Court ruling striking down affirmative action in college admissions was heralded as a victory for “merit-based” selection. The ruling has, however, left an implicit discriminatory practice intact: Male applicants continue to be prioritized over female applicants when needed to balance out the student population. This is no coincidence. It’s the result of a deeply ingrained, albeit often unacknowledged, bias in the admissions process that dates back decades.

Keeping Score: Devastating Attacks on USAID; Louisiana Indicts N.Y. Doctor; Autumn Lockwood Is First Black Woman Coach to Win Super Bowl

PUBLISHED 2/12/2025 by | UPDATED 6/26/2025 at 2:46 P.M. PT

In every issue of Ms., we track research on our progress in the fight for equality, catalogue can’t-miss quotes from feminist voices and keep tabs on the feminist movement’s many milestones. We’re Keeping Score online, too—in this biweekly roundup.

This week: Musk and Trump’s USAID attacks have devastating impacts; 80% of the clean energy investments from the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act—which Trump wants to roll back—are in Republican congressional districts; Louisiana indicts a New York doctor for prescribing abortion pills; new executive orders go after workers and LGBTQ people; the Laken Riley Act was signed into law; childcare costs affect the health of parents; and more.

‘There Is a Lot of Advocacy Underway … We Can’t Retreat’: Demelza Baer on the Legal Fight for Civil Rights

PUBLISHED 2/11/2025 by

An interview with Demelza Baer, director of public policy at the 62-year-old Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law:

“We’re making plans, discussing litigation strategies and doing outreach. A lot is happening behind the scenes. … I know that this moment feels like one of the most challenging periods of our generation, but this makes our social justice work more meaningful than ever. Everyone in the civil rights and social justice communities is facing attacks, but this is our moment to lean in. We can’t retreat.”

The SAVE Act Is Voter Suppression Disguised as Election Integrity

PUBLISHED 2/11/2025 by | UPDATED 2/11/2026 at 11:35 A.M. PT

The Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, introduced by Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), would impose strict in-person documentation requirements for voter registration, effectively dismantling vote-by-mail, online registration and voter registration drives. These changes would disproportionately disenfranchise historically marginalized communities, including people of color, low-income individuals and women, while being based on debunked claims of non-citizen voting.

Critics argue that the bill is a voter suppression tactic designed to maintain political power rather than protect election integrity, threatening the fundamental right to vote in a democracy.

‘Calling In’: Loretta Ross’ New Book Teaches How to ‘Model the World We Desire’

PUBLISHED 2/3/2025 by

Reproductive justice founder Loretta Ross has a groundbreaking new book: Calling In: How to Start Making Change with Those You’d Rather Cancel. Ross draws on over 40 years of experience as a feminist activist to offer hope and guidance for how we can learn to communicate and work together across our differences of identity, political opinion and priorities. Calling In is part activist memoir, part how-to guide for calling in and part strategic plan for growing the human rights movement.

Beautifully written and engaging, Calling In is a guide to “compassionate politics”—an antidote to infighting and calling out that is weakening the women’s movement and the left today.