Following widespread sentencing reforms, such as the adoption of federal and state sentencing guidelines, researchers have continued to examine the complex role of race in the sentencing process. ... Today, black defendants serve as much time in federal prison for drug offenses as white defendants serve for violent offenses-a result largely attributed to biases in federal statutory penalties for offenses involving crack versus powder cocaine (Mauer and King, 2007a). ... In response to external pressure from scholars and legal advocates, governmental pressure to develop standardized models of ...

• Word Count: 2620
• Approx Pages: 10
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Graduate

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 formally abolished the Jim Crow system in public accommodations, employment, voting, education, and federally financed activities. The Voting Rights Act of 1965, an arguably more significant achievement, rendered illegal numerous discriminatory barriers to effective political participation by African-Americans and mandated federal review of all new voting regulations so that it would be possible to determine whether their use would perpetuate voting discrimination. ... " These highly racialized appeals targeted poor and working-class whites and were usually ac...

• Word Count: 4144
• Approx Pages: 17
• Has Bibliography

Since the government came up with the "brilliant" idea of exclusionary zoning, blacks and other minorities have suffered the most. Minorities are often forced to live in low-class federal housing mainly because of limited opportunities offered to them in educational advances. ... I have seen federal housing and it is not a pretty thing. Upon entering a unit provided by the government, one may find holes in the floors, neglected utility pipes and fixtures, and infestations. ... Bush and his administration are in the process of increasing housing opportunities for minorities and reforming fe...

• Word Count: 2726
• Approx Pages: 11
• Grade Level: High School

This issue screams to be addressed by the government and abolished in American society if we truly desire our country to be "The Land of the Free," that we all know and love. ... According to our own governmental reports 80 percent of the country's cocaine users are white, and the "typical" cocaine user is a white middle class suburbanite. ... Political opposition to the practice of racial profiling is mounting, President Clinton has it "morally indefensible" and has ordered federal law enforcement officials to collect ...

• Word Count: 2664
• Approx Pages: 11
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

The Declaration of Independence states, "All men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights". But how much of this is true? Since the very beginning of the legal system in the United States, there has been inequality. Appearance has held such precedence...

• Word Count: 3114
• Approx Pages: 12
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

With all this happening the government was forced to protect many black Americans and to guarantee them their rights. In order to enforce these rights federal legislations were passed, public facilities such as transportation and waiting rooms were now desegregated and blacks finally gained back their access to the polling booth. ... The decision from the Brown case placed the federal government on the side of those people who saw segregation as something bad and evil. ...

• Word Count: 2726
• Approx Pages: 11
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

Much of this improvement has been achieved through various court decisions, and other improvements have been made through federal and state legislatures. ... It also found that of all federal death row inmates, 67 percent are Black.11 Despite the fact that these statistics are startling and important, they are insufficient to justify race-based jury nullification at face value. ...

• Word Count: 3584
• Approx Pages: 14
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

The southern slave owning states made it clear that they did not want the federal government to interfere with their ability to own slaves. Therefore the Constitution was structured to allow the caste system of slavery to not only continue, but also gave the stamp of approval of slavery from the newly formed government (Alexander, 25). ... At this time, many of the federal civil rights legislations were passed and America went into the Reconstruction Era. ... However, these Amendments turned out to be false promises when the government stopped protecting these rights of southern black American...

• Word Count: 6384
• Approx Pages: 26

It is a testament to the greatness of Martin Luther King Jr. that nearly every major city in the U.S. has a street or school named after him. It is a measure of how sorely his achievements are misunderstood that most of them are located in black neighborhoods. He is still regarded mainly as the bl...

• Word Count: 3558
• Approx Pages: 14
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

Another step backwards in the history of human rights for blacks was reached, when the erosion of the rights they had achieved under the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments and the Reconstruction Acts were denied by the southern government. ... New interpretations of these Amendments by the state governments left blacks defenseless. ...

• Word Count: 4309
• Approx Pages: 17
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

The Situation of African-Americans in America In their motherland Africa, black people lived together in tribes with the families staying together in the village and leading a live according to strong morals and rites. Each tribe had developed a culture and often an own language, and the people ei...

• Word Count: 3965
• Approx Pages: 16
• Grade Level: High School

1. INTRODUCTION In 1988, the now-bestselling author and former lawyer John Grisham had his first book published. Entitled "A Time to Kill", the novel presented the story of a small Mississippi town that becomes the scene of a spectacular trial: After two white men rape his daughter, her black father named Carl Lee Hailey shoots them. He then hires the white street lawyer Jake Brigance as his attorney, who also defended his brother in a different case. A wave of racial tension hits the town, with its citizens taking sides, the black community organizing marches and the Ku-Klux-Klan ...

• Word Count: 4938
• Approx Pages: 20
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate