skip to main content
skip to newscasts

Friday, March 29, 2024

Public News Service Logo
facebook instagram linkedin reddit youtube twitter
view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

50 Years of Civil Rights In MI: Legacy and Future

play audio
Play

Thursday, July 10, 2014   

LANSING, Mich. - Independence Day isn't the only reason to celebrate in July. This month also marks the 50th anniversary of the passage of the landmark 1964 Civil Rights Act. While Michigan was a civil rights pioneer, state leaders say much more work needs to be done.

According to Leslee Fritz, deputy director of the Michigan Department of Civil Rights, one year before the Civil Rights Act made discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin illegal, Michigan took the bold step of becoming the first state in the nation to create a civil rights commission.

"Many of us don't remember a world where individuals had to deal with signs in the window that said 'No Women Need Apply' or 'Whites Only,'" says Fritz. "That's not a world many of us grew up in."

Fritz says the Civil Rights Act laid the foundation for other protections, including the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Fair Housing Act and the Voting Rights Act. However, she says it's important to note Michigan still does not have LGBT rights and nondiscrimination protections in place.

In many ways, Fritz says the current debate over LGBT rights echoes the 1960s in terms of the core issue of how to achieve equality for a group of people in all aspects of life.

"Most people are surprised to hear that in Michigan today, it's still completely legal to fire a person, to deny them a job, to deny them an apartment, to turn them away from a hotel or a restaurant because of their perceived sexual orientation," says Fritz.

She adds momentum is growing for LGBT nondiscrimination legislation in Lansing among several groups, including many large employers and chambers of commerce. Fritz says these entities see the matter as an economic issue. She hopes to see an LGBT nondiscrimination bill introduced before the end of the year.


get more stories like this via email

more stories
The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments this week about the popular abortion pill Mifepristone and will weigh in on whether the U.S. Food and Drug Administration was correct in how it can be dosed and prescribed. (Ascannio/Adobe Stock)

Health and Wellness

play sound

Missouri residents are worried about future access to birth control. The latest survey from The Right Time, an initiative based in Missouri…


Social Issues

play sound

Wisconsin children from low-income families are now on track to get nutritious foods over the summer. Federal officials have approved the Badger …

Social Issues

play sound

Almost 2,900 people are unsheltered on any given night in the Beehive State. Gov. Spencer Cox is celebrating signing nine bills he says are geared …


The U.S. teaching workforce remains primarily white while the percentage of Black teachers has declined. However, the percentage of Asian and Latinx teachers is rising.(WavebreakMediaMicro/Adobestock)

Social Issues

play sound

Education advocates are calling on lawmakers to increase funding for programs to combat the teacher shortage. Around 37% of schools nationwide …

Environment

play sound

New York's Legislature is considering a bill to get clean-energy projects connected to the grid faster. It's called the RAPID Act, for "Renewable …

Social Issues

play sound

Earlier this month, a new Arizona Public Service rate hike went into effect and one senior advocacy group said those on a fixed income may struggle …

Social Issues

play sound

Michigan recently implemented a significant juvenile justice reform package following recommendations from a task force made up of prosecutors…

 

Phone: 303.448.9105 Toll Free: 888.891.9416 Fax: 208.247.1830 Your trusted member- and audience-supported news source since 1996 Copyright © 2021