The Voting Rights Act over its six decades became one of the most consequential laws in the nation’s history, preventing discrimination against minorities at the ballot box and helping to elect thousands of Black and Hispanic representatives at all levels of government.
A North Texas man who claims he wasn’t the shooter in a fatal robbery that killed two people nearly 18 years ago and who says prosecutors misused rap lyrics he wrote to secure his death sentence is facing execution.
Black members of Congress are bracing for a crippling shake-up of their ranks after a Supreme Court ruling gutted a key section of the Voting Rights Act that had protected minority communities in political redistricting and helped boost their representation.
Several states already are taking steps to respond to a U.S. Supreme Court decision striking down a majority Black congressional district in Louisiana.
The U.S. Supreme Court’s conservative majority has handed Republicans their biggest victory yet in the battle to control the House of Representatives and statehouses across the country.
Tracy Sturdivant will succeed Teresa Younger as the next president and CEO of the Ms. Foundation, the first national philanthropy run by and for women.
A Mexican man in the United States has pleaded guilty to impersonating a Border Patrol agent and following federal immigration officers to divert them while they were out on immigration enforcement missions in Southern California.
The Southern Poverty Law Center has told a federal court that law enforcement agencies knew for years that the nonprofit was paying informants to report on the movements of hate groups.
On Newport’s south side, historic and opulent mansions sit on an avenue with mature trees that help cool the neighborhoods, clean the air and foster wildlife.
The Trump administration’s historic move to reclassify state-licensed medical marijuana as a less-dangerous drug was cheered by some advocates but for others, it fell far short for the thousands incarcerated for federal cannabis-related convictions.
A Virginia university has approved funding for a memorial for dozens of people, most of African descent, whose bodies were taken from their graves for use by medical students and then dumped in a forgotten well.
Jack Thornell, the Associated Press photographer whose picture from an assassination attempt on James Meredith in 1966 won a Pulitzer Prize, has died at age 86.
Attorneys for a Black man scheduled to be executed in Texas say the introduction of rap lyrics he wrote biased an almost all-white jury when they decided to sentence him to death.
The Southern Poverty Law Center's indictment is sparking outrage among civil rights leaders.
More than two years after an Ohio judge declared a mistrial, a murder retrial has begun for a former Ohio sheriff’s deputy charged in the December 2020 killing of a Black man.
Paving roads in the Amazon rainforest often causes deforestation that threatens the people who live there.
A new AP-NORC poll finds many of the groups that helped elect Donald Trump as president again are deeply unhappy with his performance.
Xaneri Merino, a transgender woman and artisan from southern Mexico, was once punished for weaving in her Indigenous community, where men are largely barred from weaving.
Fernando Mendoza and Diego Pavia pulled off an unprecedented double at the Heisman Trophy ceremony in December.
Two deadly cases of domestic violence — one in Louisiana and the other in Virginia targeting Black mothers — have sparked a national conversation about domestic violence prevention and mental health care resources available to Black communities.
The stories of Black and Indigenous men who fought during the American Revolution are sometimes overlooked.
Relatives of a jail inmate whom investigators determined died after a Kansas sheriff’s deputy shoved his knee into the cuffed man’s back for one minute and 26 seconds have filed a federal lawsuit.
The most popular last names in the U.S. might be unchanged from the previous decade, but Asian surnames were the fastest-growing at the start of 2020s.
The attorney for a man shot by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents during an enforcement stop in California says his client was arrested by the FBI after being discharged from a hospital.
A man linked to white supremacist movements has pleaded guilty to setting a fire that destroyed part of a historic social justice center in Tennessee.
A study by Tel Aviv University says that 2025 saw the highest number of deaths from antisemitic attacks in over 30 years.
America’s history is being seen through different lenses as the country celebrates its 250th anniversary.
The attorney for a man shot by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents during an arrest in central California says his client is recovering after three surgeries for multiple gunshot wounds and that he denies being a gang member.
A federal judge in Phoenix has rejected a plea agreement that would have allowed a man who acknowledged beating a Navajo elder and leaving her for dead to avoid more prison time.
The Democratic Party’s leading 2028 presidential prospects are warning African Americans that President Donald Trump is actively working to undermine their right to vote in 2026.
A former New York City police officer has been sentenced to three to nine years in prison for tossing a picnic cooler full of drinks at a fleeing suspect, who then crashed his motorized scooter and died.
Iranian Americans are experiencing uncertainty as the Trump administration imposes deadlines and intermediaries seek paths to avoid escalation of the war in Iran.
U.S. authorities say a Guatemalan man has pleaded guilty in federal court to a felony offense stemming from the crash of human smugglers' truck in Mexico that killed more than 50 migrants in 2021.
Two Minnesota school districts and the state’s main teachers union have asked a federal judge to block a Trump administration change in policy that gave immigration authorities a freer hand to conduct enforcement actions in and near schools.
An attorney for a man shot by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents during an arrest in California says his client did not try to run officers over with his car and disputed claims that he has a warrant out for his arrest in El Salvador.
The wife of a U.S. Army staff sergeant has been released from a federal immigration detention facility where she spent nearly a week after being taken into custody inside a Louisiana military base.
New research reveals that financial gains for many Black-led nonprofits after George Floyd’s murder were short-lived.
The city of Minneapolis has released a video showing a chase and a scuffle that ended in a nonfatal shooting in January.
The president of Wisconsin’s largest mosque was detained by federal immigration agents, drawing accusations from local officials and religious leaders that the arrest was motivated by his statements against Israel.
An inspection at the nation’s largest immigration detention facility found dozens of violations of national standards that potentially exposed detainees to excessive force, disease, and other unsafe conditions.
Medical examiners have ruled that the death of a nearly blind refugee from Myanmar, five days after Border Patrol left him at a Buffalo, New York, doughnut shop, was a homicide.
The U.S. Supreme Court has finished hearing arguments over the constitutionality of President Donald Trump’s order to end birthright citizenship for children born in the United States to someone in the country illegally or temporarily.
Democrats in North Carolina are scrambling to turn out rural Black voters and say the party cannot win the state without them.
A U.S. resident of 27 years who was deported to Mexico by the Trump administration has returned home to Sacramento.
A federal judge has thrown out a U.S. Department of Justice lawsuit accusing Colorado and Denver of interfering with the enforcement of immigration laws.
The Supreme Court seems likely to rule for a Black death row inmate from Mississippi who claims there was racial bias in the makeup of the jury that convicted him.
In 1965, Filipino and Mexican American farmworkers in California became inextricably linked when they mobilized to strike against grape growers.
Sexual abuse allegations against the revered labor leader César Chavez have led to a swift fallout, leaving many to reconcile the legacy of a man who fought tirelessly for the rights of farmworkers.
A notebook with meeting minutes and a ledger are among the Ku Klux Klan-related items found recently when a Mississippi government office was cleared out.
Some names will be familiar to the Supreme Court in the latest case involving a Black death row inmate from Mississippi.
California is the first state to require food makers to add folic acid, a crucial vitamin, to corn masa flour used to make tortillas and other foods.
A newly identified Underground Railroad passage is putting the spotlight on a New York City museum and its struggle with a proposed development.
The Trump administration has opened investigations into how race is considered in admissions at three medical schools, ratcheting up its pressure campaign against colleges and universities.
An appeals court has paused lower court rulings in Oregon that restricted federal officers' use of tear gas during protests at the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement building in Portland.
The U.N. General Assembly’s resolution declaring the trafficking of enslaved Africans “the gravest crime against humanity” and calling for reparations is being widely welcomed across Africa.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed a bill to rename César Chavez Day to Farmworkers Day following sexual abuse allegations against the Latino labor icon.
Jewish and Muslim communities in the United States observed some of the most sacred holidays of their respective religions despite increased security measures and concerns over hateful rhetoric as the war in the Middle East continues.
The Supreme Court grappled Tuesday with an immigration policy that has been used to turn back migrants seeking asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border and whether the Trump administration should be able to revive it.
The University of Southern California has canceled a gubernatorial debate scheduled for Tuesday after candidates of color were excluded and accused the university of discrimination.
A new AAPI Data/AP-NORC poll finds that most Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders believe President Donald Trump has done more harm than good on the issue of immigration and border security in his second term so far.
Voting rights advocates in Alaska are worried that a case set to be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court could end a long-standing practice of the state accepting ballots after Election Day.
Nearly 600 immigrant children were held in a Texas family detention center in recent months beyond court-mandated limits and without enough food, medical care or mental health services, with dozens languishing inside for more than three months, according to court documents filed Friday.
The shattered legacy of Latino labor rights icon César Chavez has been particularly devastating among advocates who have long fought to raise awareness about sexual harassment and abuse against women farmworkers, which remains both widespread and underreported.
Federal prosecutors have asked a judge to drop the charges against two Louisville officers tied to the 2020 raid that killed Breonna Taylor.
Clergy will be allowed to minister to immigrants in a holding facility at the headquarters of the Trump administration’s enforcement surge in Minnesota.
Within hours of explosive sexual abuse allegations against labor leader César Chavez, officials at a California university took swift action and covered a statue of him.
An immigration judge has denied the asylum claim of the family of Liam Conejo Ramos, the 5-year-old boy photographed in a bunny hat and Spider-Man backpack as he was detained with his father during the immigration crackdown that shook Minneapolis earlier this year, a family lawyer said.
Dolores Huerta has dedicated her life to breaking down barriers and cemented her place in history as one of the nation’s most influential labor leaders, civil rights icons and feminist activists.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom is supporting a proposal to rename César Chavez Day following stunning abuse allegations against the revered labor leader.
Labor rights activist Dolores Huerta revealed she was among women and girls who say they were sexually abused by César Chavez, the long-admired Latino icon, while he led the United Farm Workers union.
Gregory Bovino, who became a face of the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration enforcement tactics in large cities, says he plans to retire from the U.S. Border Patrol in the coming weeks.
Congressional Republicans are pushing voting legislation that's backed by President Donald Trump and would require voters to produce documentary proof of citizenship in order to register for federal elections.
A Wisconsin legislator has pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor count of disorderly conduct in connection with a bitter feud with her caucus over resolutions honoring Hispanics.
The National Museum of African American History and Culture is removing a rare slave ship timber from its “Slavery and Freedom” exhibit and returning it to South Africa.
A U_N_-backed panel of independent experts focusing on racial discrimination says racist hate speech by U_S_ President Donald Trump and other American political leaders, along with a crackdown on immigration in the United States, have led to “grave human rights violations.”.
A federal judge is weighing whether the government can force the University of Pennsylvania to hand over detailed employee information in an antisemitism investigation.
The Trump administration is criticizing lower court judges who have slowed its efforts to strip legal protections from a broad swath of migrants living in the U.S. It's asking the Supreme Court to clear the way for moves that could expose thousands more people to deportation.
A racially biased medical test for years kept Black people from getting kidney transplants.
