At 6-foot-9, Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange would have towered over the diminutive George Wallace, the state's segregationist governor during the violent days of the civil rights movement.

But lately, the attorney general has been looking equally small.

When Wallace stood in the "schoolhouse door" to stop African-American students from...

The young man was born in San Francisco to parents of Chinese descent. After returning from a visit to his ancestral home via the steamship Coptic, he was detained by customs agents and refused entry to the United States. Federal prosecutors claimed he should be sent back to China because...

Congressional repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" has set off waves of condemnation among anti-gay opponents who predict all measure of doom and disaster for the military and America. Yet it serves us well to recall a decision that put an end to another unjust policy steeped in fear and...

This week, as we celebrate our nation's bounty and give thanks for the blessings in our lives, most of us probably won't think very much about the people who do the backbreaking labor that puts food on our plates. We should.

It's easy to take for granted the cornucopia of...

Earlier this month, my colleagues and I at the Southern Poverty Law Center were privileged to stand with U.S. Rep. John Lewis at the Civil Rights Memorial as he led a bipartisan congressional delegation in laying a wreath in honor of those who lost their lives in our country's epic...

After a drastic decline in civil rights enforcement by the U.S. Justice Department over much of the past decade, President Obama's declaration during the State of the Union Address that his administration is "once again prosecuting civil rights violations" is a promising sign.

I'd like to remind the president of...

To: Bill O'Reilly
The O'Reilly Factor
Fox News Network

Dear Bill,

You lost the bet. Time to pay up!

When I appeared on your show in July, you were so certain that the Southern Poverty Law Center's call for CNN to fire Lou Dobbs was a waste...

On Monday, I went on the O'Reilly Factor to discuss our call for CNN to take Lou Dobbs off the air for Dobbs' latest conspiracy-mongering. Bill O'Reilly said we shouldn't take Dobbs too seriously. After all, Bill said, it's all just for ratings. But in our view, the matter...

Here's a question to ponder: Who poses more of a threat to the good order of the military, not to mention our national security?

A) Gay soldiers.

B) Racist, neo-Nazi soldiers who profess hatred for their commander-in-chief.

The vast majority of Americans, I suspect, would pick B. Not the...

"D.W." had been confined to the juvenile detention center for only a week when he tried to hang himself with a bed sheet.

His mental health had deteriorated rapidly during his confinement at the Harrison County Juvenile Detention Center in Biloxi, Miss. But rather than provide him with counseling, guards...

Save the children.

We've heard it so often and seen the pictures on television. We think we understand.

But we tend to forget that it's not just children in the Third World who need our help. Children right in our own communities are suffering, too. And although we might...

The final days of Boubacar Bah's life read like an account of a political prisoner in a gulag.

Bah, 52, was shackled to the floor of the prison's medical unit where he was left to moan and vomit until prison officials moved him to a "disciplinary cell."

He would stay...

The recent story in the New York Times about the loot taken home last year by hedge fund managers provides us with the starkest - and most obscene - evidence yet about the growing disparity between the rich and the poor in our country.

Topping the list was John...