News

The building of the U.S. Supreme Court is pictured in Washington, D.C., Jan. 19, 2020. REUTERS/Will Dunham

The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday ruled against Donald Trump's bid to end a program that protects from deportation hundreds of thousands of immigrants, dubbed "Dreamers," who entered the United States illegally as children.

Gregg Brekke 6-18-2020

Interfaith Chaplain's table in the Capitol Hill Occupied Protest in Seattle. Photo by Gregg Brekke for Sojourners

Late Monday afternoon, dressed in clerical garb, eight chaplains – three Jewish, three Unitarian Universalist, and two Christian – went into the six-block area originally called CHAZ (the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone), along with their hand-drawn sign, a folding table, and a willingness to offer faithful presence for anyone who needed it.

the Web Editors 6-17-2020

Protesters rally against racial inequality and the police shooting death of Rayshard Brooks, in Atlanta. June 13, 2020. REUTERS/Elijah Nouvelage/File Photo

A Georgia county prosecutor on Wednesday announced that a fired Atlanta police officer has been charged with felony murder in the shooting death of Rayshard Brooks, 27, in the parking lot of a fast-food restaurant last week.

Christina Colón 6-17-2020

Rev. Dr. William Barber II and Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis, co-chairs of the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival, in Washington, D.C. on May 14, 2018. Photo by Rebekah Fulton for Sojourners.

This Saturday, people across the country will come together digitally to demand action from public officials as part of the Mass Poor People’s Assembly & Moral March on Washington.

Christina Colón 6-16-2020

Robert Fuller, 24, was found hanged from a tree in a park about a block from Palmdale City Hall last Wednesday. Photo courtesy of GoFundMe fundraiser organized by Fuller's sister, Diamond Alexander. 

On Monday, law enforcement officials in California announced further investigation into the deaths of Robert Fuller and Malcolm Harsch.

Fuller, 24, was found hanged from a tree in a park about a block from Palmdale City Hall last Wednesday. Harsch, 37, was discovered 10 days earlier on May 31, hanged from a tree in Victorville, which lies just 50 miles east of Palmdale.

A general view of the United States Supreme Court in Washington, May 3, 2020. REUTERS/Will Dunham

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday delivered a watershed victory for LGBTQ rights, ruling that a landmark federal law forbidding workplace discrimination protects gay and transgender employees.

the Web Editors 6-12-2020

Abolishing the police, reparations, and owning our racist pasts.

Ebony JJ Curry 6-11-2020

On June 5, nearly 1,000 people gathered for the Belle Isle Freedom March organized by Detroit resident and former mayoral candidate Ken Snapp in response to the death of George Floyd. The one-mile march echoed the 1965 Selma march with organizers calling for peace and unity.

People hang photos of their disappeared loved ones on a tree in Poza Rica, Veracruz’s Benito Juarez Park. Photo by Madeleine Wattenbarger for Sojourners

“My name is Maria Herrera,” she told the congregation, “and I have four disappeared sons.” She went on to plead for their solidarity: for anyone with information about where the brigade might find clandestine graves to speak out. The brigade, Maria emphasized, doesn’t look for guilty parties. They don’t care about finding out who took their loved ones. They just look for their family members, dead or alive.

Juan Carlos Trujillo Herrera and other family members of disappeared people march in Poza Rica, Veracruz, on February 21, 2020. Photo by Madeleine Wattenbarger for Sojourners

Desde donde me encontraba en la iglesia de Papantla, esperando agarrar aire cerca de la puerta lateral, miré a mi alrededor para ver docenas de mujeres con los ojos llenos de lágrimas. La procesión volvió a las calles de Papantla, encabezada por el obispo con sus vestimentas verde esmeralda. Marcharon durante la siguiente hora por la ciudad, sosteniendo sus fotos y gritando. Los espectadores se reunieron en las esquinas; los dueños de las tiendas se acercaron a la puerta para ver pasar a la multitud. "Unete, únete, que tu hijo puede ser," cantaban.

the Web Editors 6-04-2020

Cops, anti-racist reading lists, and the Bible photo-op.

Andrew J. Wight 6-03-2020
NGO workers go by boat to the native community of Santa Teresita in Loreto region, Peru, to help with COVID-19 preparations. Photo courtesy Living Water International

At the end of May, the Amazon basin region had almost 134,000 confirmed cases and 6,883 reported COVID-19 deaths according to a Catholic Church aggregation of published official government data from the region. There were nearly 115,000 cases in the Brazilian Amazon basin alone.

the Web Editors 6-01-2020

U.S. President Donald Trump holds up a Bible as he stands in front of St. John's Episcopal Church. June 1, 2020. REUTERS/Tom Brenner

After an incendiary Rose Garden speech on Monday— in which he threatened to deploy the military if mayors and state governors refused to call out the National Guard to end protests of police brutality — President Donald Trump crossed Lafayette Park to pose for pictures while holding a Bible in front of the historic St. John Episcopal Church. Before his photo op, police used tear gas and rubber bullets to clear peaceful protesters from the park, which stands between the White House and the church. 

Christina Colón 6-01-2020

A man passes graffiti on a building a day after protests over the death in Minneapolis police custody of George Floyd in Washington, U.S., June 1, 2020. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

In more than 60 cities across the country, people stopped on June 1 to remember the more than 100,000 people who have died from COVID-19 as part of a National Day of Mourning and Lament.

the Web Editors 5-30-2020

Minnesota Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan at a news conference on May 30.

"There are white supremacists, there are anarchists, there are people who are burning down the institutions that are core to our identity and who we are," Flanagan said, pointing to Migizi, a nonprofit organization serving Native American youth, which was trashed and its historical archives destroyed amid the protests. " ... We need to create the space for people to be able to grieve, to come together, to mourn the loss of George Floyd, but in order to be able to do that, we need to create the space to remove the people who are doing us harm."

the Web Editors 5-29-2020

A protester kicks the door of the Florida home of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin in the Windermere neighbourhood of Orlando, Fla., May 29, 2020. REUTERS/Scott Audette

Derek Chauvin, the Minneapolis police officer who is seen on a bystander's cellphone video kneeling on George Floyd's neck on Monday, has been charged with third-degree murder in Floyd's death, according to Mike Freeman, Hennepin County attorney.

Pastor Traci Blackmon poses inside the closed Christ the King United Church of Christ in Florissant, Mo., May 22, 2020. REUTERS/Lawrence Bryant

When Traci Blackmon, the senior pastor for a predominantly black church in the suburbs of St. Louis, Mo., is finally able to open the doors for service again, one of her main concerns is the collective sorrow her congregation will experience.

Megan Janetsky 5-28-2020

Staff at Casa del Migrante prepares food for migrants still houses at the shelter during the pandemic with a facemask on. Photo courtesy Casa del Migrante

“The big, big risk in Tijuana is that somebody comes, and if they're sick, where do I send them? There is no option,” he said. “The general hospital won't take them unless they're a certain level of sick, they have to be severely sick, so there is no structure here.”

Anne Snabes 5-28-2020

Image via Chris Dobens/We ACT for Environmental Justice 

“The communities that suffer environmental injustices that affect their underlying illnesses have higher rates of pulmonary diseases, which render them more at risk of dying from COVID-19,” said Rep. Raul Ruiz, D-Calif., who authored legislation upon which the provision is based. Ruiz said the environmental justice grant programs need to be codified because “you never know” which administration will neglect or defund the programs.

the Web Editors 5-22-2020

The politics in ‘Mrs. America,’ evangelicals in Brazil, and finding joy right now.