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On this day in 1898, a white mob attacked Frazier Baker, the first Black postmaster of Lake City, SC, and his family. Both Mr. Baker and his infant daughter were killed in the attack.

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On this day in 1965, Malcolm X, an outspoken critic of racism and white supremacy, was assassinated in Manhattan. He was just 39 years old and left behind his wife and six young daughters.

submitted 1 day ago • 4 comments

On this day in 1956, local officials issued arrest warrants for civil rights activists for leading an "illegal boycott" to protest racial segregation on city buses. 89 would later be indicted.

submitted 2 days ago • 2 comments

On this day in 1923, the U.S. Supreme Court held that Indian immigrants had "unmistakable and profound differences” from "white" immigrants and they were legally barred from becoming U.S. citizens.

submitted 3 days ago • 1 comment

Where the death penalty remains active, increasing jury diversity can increase reliability and help reduce the risk of wrongful convictions.

submitted 4 days ago • 2 comments

On this day in 1965, an Alabama state trooper shot an unarmed Black man named Jimmie Lee Jackson twice while Mr. Jackson was trying to protect his mother and grandfather. He died 8 days later.

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Explore our new report, Unreliable Verdicts: Racial Bias and Wrongful Convictions, which documents how the absence of diversity in juries can increase the chance of a wrongful conviction, especially in death penalty cases.

submitted 4 days ago • 1 comment

On this day in 1947, a white mob in Pickens County, South Carolina, seized a 24-year-old Black man named Willie Earle from the local jail. On a deserted country road near Greenville, the mob brutally beat, stabbed, and then shot him to death. No one was ever convicted for the lynching of Mr. Earle.

submitted 5 days ago • 1 comment

On this day in 1847, Missouri passed an act that prohibited Black people from learning to read and write and assembling freely for worship services. The act also forbade free Black people from migrating to the state.

submitted 6 days ago • 2 comments

On this day in 1804, New Jersey appeased the state's enslavers by passing a "gradual emancipation" law that delayed the end of slavery for decades.

submitted 7 days ago • 5 comments

Two men have been killed in recent Alabama prison assaults. Michael Thomas Jones, 47, died on February 6 after suffering an assault at Limestone Correctional Facility. Less than a week later, Cordel Ladon Battle, 30, was stabbed to death at Donaldson Correctional Facility on February 11.

submitted 8 days ago • 4 comments

On this day in 1945, an all-white, all-male grand jury in Alabama failed to indict any of the white men accused of raping Mrs. Recy Taylor, a Black woman. Despite a confession, the men were never prosecuted.

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EJI celebrates the life and work of Dr. Derryn Moten, a brilliant scholar, historian, and Alabama State University professor who passed away last week. Dr. Moten was a true crusader for justice and made vital contributions to the study and understanding of race in America and Black life.

submitted 9 days ago • 1 comment

On this day in 1960, students from Nashville's Black colleges launched anti-segregation protests and later braved violent attacks by white mobs.

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On this day in 1946, a white police chief brutally beat Sgt. Isaac Woodard, a Black World War II veteran, just hours after he was discharged. The attack left Sgt. Woodard permanently blind.

submitted 10 days ago • 2 comments

On this day in 1826, a white man in North Carolina offered a $20 reward for the capture of an enslaved Black man suspected of fleeing to visit his enslaved wife in a neighboring county.

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The Superior Court in Johnston County, North Carolina, ruled last week that racial discrimination was a “significant factor” in capital cases. Evidence revealed that jury selection and jury sentencing decisions were driven by racial bias in death penalty cases across several court districts.

submitted 12 days ago • 1 comment

On this day in 1908, a mob of over 2,000 white people lynched a Black man named Eli Pigot in Brookhaven, Mississippi.

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On this day in 1960, four weeks before the Little Rock Central High School graduation, a bomb exploded at the home of Carlotta Walls. She was the youngest of the nine Black students--known as the Little Rock Nine--who integrated the school in 1957.

submitted 13 days ago • 1 comment

On this day in 1968, white state troopers fired into a mostly African American crowd on the campus of South Carolina State College, a historically Black college in Orangeburg, and killed three young Black men.

submitted 14 days ago • 3 comments

On this day in 1904, a white mob brutally lynched Luther Holbert and an unidentified Black woman before a crowd of picknicking spectators in Doddsville, Mississippi.

submitted 15 days ago • 3 comments

Alabama executed Demetrius Frazier by nitrogen suffocation tonight despite serious questions about the reliability of his death sentence.

submitted 16 days ago • 29 comments

On this day in 1902, a white mob seized Thomas Brown, a 19-year-old Black man, from a jail cell and lynched him on the lawn of the Jessamine County Courthouse in Nicholasville, Kentucky.

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On this day in 1917, Congress passed an Immigration Act that banned racial groups deemed "undesirable" from entering the U.S., and primarily barred Asian people.

submitted 17 days ago • 3 comments

On this day in 1846, Alabama began statewide convict leasing, a practice later used to re-enslave emancipated Black people criminalized by unjust laws.

submitted 18 days ago • 2 comments

Alabama plans to execute Demetrius Frazier by nitrogen suffocation despite serious questions about the reliability of his death sentence. Although mitigating evidence may have supported a life in prison sentence, Mr. Frazier’s appointed counsel failed to present any information at trial.

submitted 19 days ago • 5 comments

On this day in 1948, an all-white jury sentenced a Black woman and two of her teenage sons to death for killing an armed white man in self-defense.

submitted 19 days ago • 3 comments

On February 2, 1909, white police officers in Pittsburgh fanned out across a working-class neighborhood called “the Hill” and arrested any Black man who could not provide proof of employment.

submitted 20 days ago • 3 comments

On this day in 1965, Dr. King led over 250 activists to the Dallas County Courthouse in Selma, Alabama, to register to vote. All of them were arrested during the peaceful demonstration and charged with parading without a permit.

submitted 21 days ago • 1 comment

The Florida Legislature passed a bill that provides for a mandatory death penalty for certain people convicted of a capital offense, despite longstanding precedent making clear that such laws are unconstitutional.

submitted 22 days ago • 4 comments

On this day in 1964, a Black man named Louis Allen was ambushed and killed in Liberty, Mississippi. Mr. Allen had suffered violence, intimidation, and threats since providing evidence against a white man for killing a local Black activist.

submitted 22 days ago • 1 comment

On this day in 1956, in Montgomery, Alabama, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s home was bombed while his wife Coretta, seven-week-old daughter, and a neighbor were inside.

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Southern Living featured EJI’s Legacy Sites in Montgomery, AL, as one of the top places to visit this year. The Freedom Monument Sculpture Park, Legacy Museum, and National Memorial for Peace and Justice have attracted millions of visitors from around the world since opening.

submitted 24 days ago • 2 comments

On this day in 1883, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously upheld an Alabama law that criminalized sex between persons of different races and outlawed interracial marriage.

submitted 24 days ago • 1 comment

On this day in 1918, a group of Texas Rangers executed 15 Mexican-American men and boys “without provocation” in Porvenir, Texas.

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On this day in 1967, sheriff deputies in Birmingham shot Robert Lacey, a Black father of six, while responding to a complaint about the family dog.

submitted 26 days ago • 3 comments

On this day in 1970, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld Macon, Georgia, city officials' decision to close a public park rather than open it to Black residents.

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On this day in 1900, the Virginia Senate unanimously passed a bill that required separate cars for white and Black passengers aboard trains. This was Virginia’s first statewide segregation law.

submitted 28 days ago • 3 comments

The Legacy Sites are still open following a rare winter storm in Alabama.

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On this day in 1879, a Black man named Ben Daniels was arrested on suspicion of theft merely for having a $50 bill. Hours later, a white mob lynched Mr. Daniels and his two sons.

submitted 29 days ago • 4 comments

On this day in 1870, U.S. soldiers massacred over 150 Blackfeet—most of whom were women and children—near the Marias River in the Montana Territory.

submitted 30 days ago • 3 comments

The U.S. Supreme Court granted relief to Brenda Andrew, who was sentenced to death in Oklahoma, after prosecutors improperly relied on prejudicial evidence that made her capital trial unfair.

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“I do not think that God approves the death penalty for any crime. Capital punishment is against the better judgment of modern criminology, and, above all, against the highest expression of love in the nature of God.” Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. #MLKDay

submitted 31 days ago • 2 comments

On this day in 1953, the U.S. Court of Appeals ruled that restaurants in Washington, D.C., could continue refusing service to Black patrons. A series of laws banning racial discrimination in the District was passed during Reconstruction, but the Court ruled them invalid.

submitted 31 days ago • 1 comment

On this day in 1948, Mississippi senator and segregationist James Eastland successfully blocked passage of a bill that would have made racial terror lynching a federal crime.

submitted 32 days ago • 1 comment

On this day in 1870, Hiram Rhodes Revels became the first African American to serve in the U.S. Congress. White officials tried to declare his election null and void.

submitted 33 days ago • 1 comment

On this day in 1930, mobs of up to 500 white people roamed Watsonville, California, and the surrounding towns and farms, attacking Filipino farmworkers and their property after Filipino men were seen dancing with white women at a newly opened local dance hall.

submitted 34 days ago • 2 comments

On this day in 1771, North Carolina approved payments of nearly 1,000 pounds, or the equivalent of $230,000 today, to "reimburse" white "owners" for enslaved Black people executed by the state.

submitted 35 days ago • 1 comment

On this day in 1834, Alabama expanded its laws prohibiting free Black people from settling in the state and authorized white enslavers to capture and sell free Black people into slavery.

submitted 36 days ago • 1 comment