Justice Above All

On this episode, host Dr. Sandhya Kajeepeta, TMI Senior Researcher, chronicles how school board elections and meetings were once bastions of Black political power but have now become sites of charged debates, takeovers, and infiltrated by groups outside of the actual districts . Using Charleston as a case study, Dr. Kajeepeta illustrates how school board meetings and elections became so intense an...

Freedom House was a radical idea that changed emergency response programs and birthed modern-day paramedicine.  As we continue to reimagine public safety and confront the role of police in our society, Freedom House's legacy offers a blueprint on what health and safety can look like when people experiencing medical or behavioral distress are met with appropriate care. On this episode Justice...

In 2022, the Supreme Court reversed decades of precedent in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization .   The decision held that the Constitution of the United States does not confer a right to abortion and that the authority to regulate abortions rests with states. While the long-term ramifications of overturning the right to an abortion are unknown, Dobbs immediately triggered states’ exi...

 For over 40 years, affirmative action was one of the nation's key tools in helping create diverse working and learning environments. The practice of affirmative action in higher education admissions processes has been challenged several times over, and on June 29, 2023 the Supreme Court overturned previous rulings on the practice's legality in their decisions in SFFA v. Harvard and SFFA...

It may seem odd that an Asian-American woman became a leader in the Black liberation and Civil Rights Movement, but Dr. Grace Boggs deeply understood that our individual liberation is bound up in the liberation of others. Dr. Grace Boggs was a Detroit-based labor activist and organizer known as the founding mother of intersectionality. She used her academic background in philosophy to undergird he...

On the opening episode of Season two of Justice Above All, the Thurgood Marshall Institute team explores how access to the ballot can make Black communities healthier. In 2022, the American Medical Association classified voting as a social determinant of health. Equal and fair access is not only the pinnacle of a healthy, functioning democracy, but it has crucial downstream impacts for physical, m...

On this episode of Justice Above All, TMI Senior Fellow and former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Julián Castro walks listeners through the rise of the corporate landlord and their preying upon Black neighborhoods, starting with America's history of state-sponsored segregation, exploring the impact of the Great Recession, and ending with the state of today's housing market. ...

On this episode of Justice Above All , host Dr. Sandhya Kajeepeta walks listeners through how race shapes the experience of contracting and recovering from long-haul COVID. Featuring former Washington D.C. Public Health Commissioner Dr. Reed Tuckson, Yale School of Medicine Assistant Professor and epidemiologist Dr. Carol Oladele, and award-winning former teacher, activist and long-COVID patient C...

In the U.S., experiencing a behavioral health crisis can mean deadly interaction with the police. Instead of meeting those in need with compassion and care, they’re being met with guns and incarceration. The latest episode of Justice Above All explores alternatives to policing behavorial health crises.  Hosted by: Ayobami Laniyonu  Produced: Keecee DeVenny and Jackie O'Neill Edited by: Keecee...

Millions of people live in areas that expose them to hazardous conditions and jeopardize their health. Across the nation, existing and newly built public and subsidized housing is concentrated in low-economic opportunity areas. Disproportionately Black and Brown communities face high levels of poverty and high exposure to environmental dangers. The federal government's long history of disinve...

During the 2020 Election, targeted difficulties, like voting ID laws, polling place closures, voter roll purges, registration requirements, and limitations on voting times, had a particularly burdensome impact on voters of color. Nevertheless, 2020 saw the highest turnout of voters of color in American history. On this episode,  Justice Above All unpacks how election sabotage invaded the 2020 elec...

On this episode, host Dr. Kesha Moore unpacks the anti-truth movement and the coordinated attempts to censor the accurate teaching of American history. Justice Above All is joined by Katrina Feldkamp, Assistant Counsel for the Legal Defense Fund and Anya and Raven, two student leaders in the Southlake Anti-Racism Coalition.  If you enjoyed this episode please consider leaving a review and helping...

On this episode,  host Dr. Kesha Moore traces the history of fines and fees and outlines how localities are fining some of their poorest residents as a way to generate revenue for their budgets.  Guests: Katurah Topps, LDF Policy Counsel, Emily Harris, Policy Director of the Ella Baker Center, and Cortney Sanders, Senior Manger of State and Policy Analysis at Center on Budget and Policy Priorities...

On this episode of Justice Above All, host and TMI Senior Researcher Dr. Kesha Moore talks with Sarah Saadian, Vice President of Public Policy at the National Low Income Housing Coalition , Sophie House, Law and Policy Director at NYU's Furman Center's Housing Solutions Lab , and Jason Bailey, Assistant Counsel at the Legal Defense Fund about how our current housing epidemic links back t...

Later this year, the redistricting process will begin and the states will begin drawing the districts that will determine the allocation of political power and representation for the next ten years. However, a practice known as prison-based gerrymandering threatens the principle of "one person, one vote" and risks unfairly diluting the political power of Black and urban communities, whil...

In this episode, election law expert, Professor Richard L. Hasen speaks with, Thurgood Marshall Institute Senior Researcher, Dr. Algernon Austin about the many obstacles to voting facing African Americans this November. Professor Hasen and Dr. Austin discuss how this election is expected to be different from any other and how voters need to prepare.  This podcast is a product of the Thurgood Marsh...

In this episode, the Thurgood Marshall Institute team is joined by Dr. Janise Parker, Dr. Brooke Cunningham, and LDF's Monique Lin-Luse, Esquire to tackle four important questions: how should we reopen schools in a way that addresses the racial inequities and trauma experienced by Black students?; How can school districts better fulfill their responsibility for a safe and equitable education...

This episode features a conversation between Dr. Safiya Noble, New York Times Best-Selling Author of Algorithms of Oppression and Associate Professor at UCLA, and Will Searcy, Research and Operations Associate at the Thurgood Marshall Institute. At their most basic, algorithms are just instructions that are given to a computer to perform specific tasks. They can be very simple or incredibly comple...