Reggie Shuford became executive director of the ACLU of Pennsylvania in September 2011. Before joining the ACLU-PA, he served as the director of law and policy at the Equal Justice Society (EJS), a national strategy group heightening consciousness on race in the law and popular discourse. From 1995-to 2010, Reggie served as senior staff counsel in the national ACLU's Racial Justice Program. During his tenure there, he helped pioneer legal challenges to racial profiling practices nationwide. He was the ACLU's chief litigator in challenges to racial profiling, leading national litigation efforts and consulting with ACLU state affiliates and others in cases of "driving while black or brown," airport profiling, and profiling related to the war on terror.

This podcast discusses Reggie's upbringing in North Carolina, his experience as the first black graduate in 1984 from Cape Fear Academy, which was a school created as a "segregation academy" so white children would not have to attend school with black children, and his graduation from The University of North Carolina's School of Law in Chapel Hill. We discuss how these life experiences have fueled his passion for civil rights, equality, and social justice. We also discuss some of today's most talked-about issues like Florida's "Don't Say Gay" Law, Critical Race Theory, and the role that organizations like the ACLU play in creating opportunity and fairness for all people. The recent nomination of the first African-American woman to the Supreme Court and how political polarization hurts the country, especially those in marginalized communities.