Nearly two dozen unhoused people in Louisville have faced bench warrants after they failed to appear in court for “unlawful camping,” as a result of the Safer Kentucky Act. Advocates say it's what they feared, but expected.
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The housing crisis is often framed as a straightforward shortage of housing of any type, meaning any new supply is seen as good. But in Louisville, Kentucky as in many other places, the picture is really more nuanced. Every type of development does not benefit every type of resident.
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Led by the Initiative on Cities at Boston University, Loretta Lees (Boston University), Kenton Card (Boston University, now the University of Minnesota), and Andre Comandon (University of Southern California) developed a new Anti-Displacement Assessment Tool (ADA Tool) to be implemented by the Louisville Metro Government. The ADA Tool was developed in collaboration with government officials, Councilmember Jecorey Arthur, and in discussions with the Louisville Tenants Union. This first-of-its-kind planning tool to protect low-income and marginalized groups from displacement passed unanimously tonight – November 21, 2024 – at a full Metro Council meeting.
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YALift! provides young adults with a one-year, no strings attached foundation of financial stability. The pilot is collaboratively administered by Louisville Metro Government, Metro United Way, Russell: A Place of Promise, and Mayors for Guaranteed Income (MGI), and is focused on young adults in three neighborhoods of concentrated poverty: Smoketown, Russell, and California.
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A dizzyingly fantastical lyricist, he has consistently challenged himself, first with his debut album, 2011’s Section.80, and continuing with good kid, m.A.A.d city. In 2018, he won a Pulitzer Prize for his album DAMN, the first time a work outside of classical or jazz traditions was honored. Early next year, he will be headlining Super Bowl LIX.
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The Kentucky General Assembly enacted a private school voucher program in 2021 and legislation was filed to expand the program before the state Supreme Court struck it down for violating Kentucky’s constitution. That decision led directly to the legislature putting Amendment 2 on the ballot.
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For first-time voters in the 2024 election—11 by the time the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, rattled the country—that’s overwhelmingly the case. Yet, for all the familiarity with the politically absurd, it’s precisely this group’s relative youth during some of the most shocking and surreal moments of Trump’s first term that lends itself to the natural question: What parts struck a preteen at the time? Did the terms that rattled in adult brains for years—covfefe, Robert Mueller, Sharpie-gate, deep state—mean anything to a Trump-era kid?
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Republicans on the House Administration Committee at a Wednesday hearing argued that legislation to bar people from voting who are not citizens — something already illegal — is what’s needed to prepare for the November elections. But Democratic secretaries of state in battleground states told committee members they are more concerned about the detailed threats they and their election workers are experiencing resulting from election misinformation.
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Simmons College of Kentucky is holding the Louisville Freedom Summer, a new initiative to promote civic engagement and commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Mississippi Freedom Summer.
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Starting next month, more kids who are charged with violent crimes will be automatically prosecuted as adults. In Louisville, police data show most will be Black. During a legislative committee meeting in February, Sen. Matthew Deneen introduced a bill that he said would address an important issue in Kentucky — violent crime committed by kids.
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A government program gave formerly enslaved people land after the Civil War, only to take nearly all of it back a year and a half later. We used artificial intelligence to track down the people, places, and stories that had long been misunderstood and forgotten, then asked their descendants about what’s owed now.
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Simmons College of Kentucky is honoring the 60th anniversary of the Mississippi Freedom Summer with our very own Louisville Freedom Summer.
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Brown v. Board of Education, the Supreme Court decision that desegregated public schools, stands in the collective national memory as a turning point in America’s fight for racial justice. But as the U.S. observes its 70th anniversary, Brown also represents something more somber: It ultimately led to thousands of Black teachers losing their jobs. Before Brown, Black teachers constituted 35% to 50% of the teacher workforce in segregated states. Today, Black people account for just 6.7% of America’s public K-12 teachers, even as Black children make up more than 15% of public school students.
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A decade later, Ward, who is Black, recently posed in a blue-and-gold throne used for photo ops at his new cannabis store, Cloud 9 Cannabis. He greeted customers walking in for early 4/20 deals. And he reflected on being one of the first beneficiaries of a Washington program to make the overwhelmingly white industry more accessible to people harmed by the war on drugs.
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LouiEvolve Hip Hop and Arts Festival will return to Louisville April 18–20. This annual celebration of art, music, and community will be at The MAMMOTH Art Space downtown. An all ages event that celebrates the diversity and creativity of the local arts scene and cultivates community engagement will include musical performances as well as interactive activities and community initiatives.
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In 2014, Ta-Nehisi Coates’ article “The Case for Reparations” went viral. Tracing everything from the racial terror of slavery to the rampant housing discrimination of the 20th century, Coates made the case for financial reparations for the descendants of those enslaved in the US. However, this argument extends back further than 2014 and also has significance beyond the Black American community.
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Four years of protest, court proceedings and various community organizing has shown our community’s commitment to justice, but it has not been without extreme costs. At least four comrades from BreeWayy have since passed away. Protestors arrested in 2020 still have felony charges. The Department of Justice, not a community activist group, has proved the LMPD has engaged in severely racist and problematic practices from its inception until the present day.
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Four decades ago, at the start of 1984, Harold Washington was finishing his historic opening year in office as Chicago’s first Black mayor. An outsider candidate who had been persuaded to run by the city’s social movements, Washington represented a major break from the past, and his 1983 victory served as an important milestone in the efforts of civil rights activists to gain footholds in electoral politics. Today, as social movements increasingly take interest in running insurgent candidates for office, Washington provides a vital model for how grassroots forces can bring new constituencies into the electoral realm and upend the established practices of insider politics.
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The manufactured “crisis” over wokeness and critical race theory continues to have an impact on K-12 education. The concerted effort by conservative politicians, advocates, and academics to dismantle anti-racist teachings has focused, in part, on riling up parents (with a particular focus on white parents) over the kind of history instruction their children are receiving.
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In honor of Black History Month, we recognize the contributions of Black astronauts to our nation’s space programs. Coming to NASA from a variety of backgrounds as military pilots, engineers, scientists, and physicians, these astronauts have made history-making contributions participating in space shuttle missions to perform critical tasks such as deploying and retrieving satellites, performing spacewalks, conducting science and technology research, and piloting and commanding space shuttle missions.
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