Equity & Justice

Facing persecution, violence, lack of health care and myriad other barriers to safety, millions of refugees leave home each year seeking a better life in a different country.

As of 2017, more than 2 million Somalis have been displaced, in one of the world's worst refugee crises, according to the United Nations refugee agency.

South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg stressed Tuesday that more work needs to be done not just in his community but across the country to make sure police understand that it's "not anti-police to be pro-racial justice."

Taking questions from reporters at the Rainbow PUSH Coalition with the Rev. Jesse Jackson by his side before making a broader speech, the Democratic presidential candidate again acknowledged that his administration hasn't done enough to fix the racial gap within the South Bend police force.

Afros, braids, dreadlocks and twists. California lawmakers have passed a bill to protect black employees and students by outlawing discrimination against people who wear those hairstyles.

"The history of our nation is riddled with laws and societal norms that equated 'blackness,' and the associated physical traits, for example, dark skin, kinky and curly hair to a badge of inferiority," the bill notes.

Updated at 6:32 p.m. ET

The man who drove his car into a crowd of anti-racist protesters in Charlottesville, Va., killing one person and injuring 35 has been sentenced to spending the rest of his life in prison.

A federal judge issued the sentence of life without the possibility of parole on Friday for self-proclaimed neo-Nazi James Fields Jr., 22, of the Toledo, Ohio, area.

Forty million — that's the number of criminal charges in Pennsylvania that will be eligible for automatic record sealing starting Friday under the state's Clean Slate law.

While law enforcement will still be able to pull up arrests and convictions, the public — including landlords and most employers — will not. They'll be hidden as if they never happened.

The law applies to non-convictions, summary offenses and most nonviolent misdemeanor convictions, including drunk driving, shoplifting and prostitution.

It's happening ... again. We have a presidential primary field full of candidates who (with one exception) aren't Latinx, trying to demonstrate how down they are with Hispanic and Latinx voters. Sure, politicians have to reach out to voters from across the cultural and racial spectrum — it's part of the job. But if that outreach is all style and little substance, it can come across as what some people call "Hispandering."

Four months after the United Methodist Church strengthened a ban on LGBTQ clergy and same-sex weddings, deep dissension over the move has brought the denomination closer to a formal split. Progressive and conservative church leaders alike are increasingly convinced that their differences are irreconcilable.

Today, antiretroviral medicines allow people with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, to live long, productive lives. But at the onset of the AIDS epidemic in the early 1980s, the disease was considered a death sentence. No one was sure what caused it or how it was spread. Some doctors and nurses refused to treat patients with the disease; others protected themselves by wearing full body suits.

A Catholic high school in Indianapolis says it has decided to fire a gay teacher to remain in the local archdiocese.

In a letter to the community, leaders of Cathedral High School said they had been in talks with the Archdiocese of Indianapolis for 22 months before deciding to cut ties with the teacher.

As she grew up as a third-generation Jehovah's Witness, there were certain things Amber Scorah did not question.

When, as a teenager, the community shunned her and prevented her from participating in her father's funeral, she accepted it as appropriate punishment for having sex with her boyfriend. Rather than pulling away at that time, Scorah doubled down.

PEORIA, Ill. (AP) — Jurors deliberated less than 90 minutes before returning a guilty verdict Monday at the federal death-penalty trial of a former University of Illinois doctoral student who killed a visiting scholar from China after abducting her at a bus stop as she headed to sign an off-campus apartment lease.

Marijuana Pepsi's mother told her that her birth name would take her places.

She wasn't wrong.

After a life spent being mocked for having an unusual name, the 46-year-old seized on her experience to earn a Ph.D. in higher education leadership. Her dissertation focused on unusual names, naturally.

As of last week, Marijuana Pepsi is now Dr. Marijuana Pepsi Vandyck.

The voice was soft and scratchy, as if a bit timid in front of the microphone.

"Ae," she said, meaning "yes" in Hawaiian, when asked a question by a male voice. "Ae hanau ia wau i Honoma'ele." ("Yes, I was born in Honoma'ele," she said.)

That voice of an elderly Hawaiian woman was that of my great-grandmother, Martha Kekauililani Kahanu Iwanaga, speaking her native language on a Honolulu radio program more than 40 years ago. The first time I heard the CD recording, it sent chills down my spine.

Many dangers await migrants who attempt to cross the border from Mexico into the U.S. Hundreds die each year, faced with dehydration, hypothermia and drowning. Many more go missing along the route, separated from their group.

Maria Ochoa is part of an organization called the Tucson Samaritans. She helps migrants along the way who are stranded or in danger. She brings them food, water and medical assistance.

Updated June 21 at 11:11 a.m. ET

Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey signed into law Wednesday a measure granting the Briarwood Presbyterian Church the right to set up its own law enforcement agency to cover its sanctuary, seminary and sprawling school campuses, despite criticism that the measure was unconstitutional.

The protests surrounding New York City's Stonewall Inn, 50 years ago this month, were a seminal moment.

Following the uprising, spurred by police raiding the bar, activist groups began organizing to demand rights.

But the success of that movement in the years that followed saw a powerful backlash from the modern religious right. The two movements became opponents in a culture war that continues today.

Wade in the Water is a 26-part series, originally released in 1994, that celebrates African American sacred music and traditions.. Listen to the episodes on NPR.org and NPR One.

Wade in the Water is a 26-part series, originally released in 1994, that celebrates African American sacred music and traditions. To learn more about the series, click here.

Wade in the Water is a 26-part series, originally released in 1994, that celebrates African American sacred music and traditions. To learn more about the series, click here.

Wade in the Water is a 26-part series, originally released in 1994, that celebrates African American sacred music and traditions. To learn more about the series, click here.