Justice Above All

 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 v. UNC Chapel-Hill.

This episode was recorded before a decision was issued in Harvard and UNC.  Despite the decision restricting the discretion of educators and admissions officers, they are still charged with the moral imperative to promote diverse learning environments. Hosted by Dr. Kesha Moore, this episode explores how affirmative action can create a thriving multiracial, multiethnic democracy, and what we can learn from institution of higher education in states that have banned affirmative action while still prioritizing diversity. 

Guests:  Michaele Turnage Young, Senior Counsel (LDF),  Femi Ogundele, Associate Vice Chancellor of Admissions and Enrollment (University of California Berkeley), and Muskaan Arshad, Student (Harvard College)

Hosted by Kesha Moore. Produced by Keecee DeVenny, Jackie O'Neil, and Kesha Moore. 

If you enjoyed this episode please consider leaving a review and helping others find it! To keep up with the work of LDF please visit our website at www.naacpldf.org and follow us on social media at @naacp_ldf. To keep up with the work of the Thurgood Marshall Institute, please visit our website at www.tminstituteldf.org and follow us on Twitter at @tmi_ldf. 

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 her organizing work in building cross-racial, intersectional social movements and centering marginalized experiences. As we continue the fight against intersecting and overlapping systems of oppression, Grace’s scholarship, activism and vision can lead the way.  On this episode,  Dr. Kesha Moore explores the life and legacy of Grace Lee Boggs. 

Host: Dr. Kesha Moore, LDF 
Guests, Jin Hee Lee, LDF; Dr. Rachel Kuo, University of Illinois, and Emma Lu, Harvard 
Produced by Keecee DeVenny, Jackie O'Neil, and Kesha Moore 

If you enjoyed this episode please consider leaving a review and helping others find it! To keep up with the work of LDF please visit our website at www.naacpldf.org and follow us on social media at @naacp_ldf. To keep up with the work of the Thurgood Marshall Institute, please visit our website at www.tminstituteldf.org and follow us on Twitter at @tmi_ldf. 

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, mental, and emotional health.  Dr. Sandhya Kajeepeta, TMI Senior Researcher, walks listeners through the impact voting has on the health of our communities. 

Hosted by Sandhya Kajeepeta. Produced by Keecee DeVenny, Jackie O'Neil, and Sandhya Kajeepeta. 

If you enjoyed this episode please consider leaving a review and helping others find it! To keep up with the work of LDF please visit our website at www.naacpldf.org and follow us on social media at @naacp_ldf. To keep up with the work of the Thurgood Marshall Institute, please visit our website at www.tminstituteldf.org and follow us on Twitter at @tmi_ldf. 

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.  This episode features Jennifer Holmes, LDF Senior Counsel, Katie Goldstein, Director of Housing and Healthcare Campaigns at the Center for Popular Democracy, and Christina Livingston, Executive Director of the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment Institute. 

Produced by Keecee DeVenny and Jackie O'Neil. 

If you enjoyed this episode please consider leaving a review and helping others find it! To keep up with the work of LDF please visit our website at www.naacpldf.org and follow us on social media at @naacp_ldf. To keep up with the work of the Thurgood Marshall Institute, please visit our website at www.tminstituteldf.org and follow us on Twitter at @tmi_ldf. 

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 Chimére Smith, this episode explores how pre-existing disparities are threatening Black communities' risk of long COVID and what this means for the future of public health and economic stability. 

This episode is produced by Keecee DeVenny, Sandhya Kajeepeta, and Jackie O'Neil, and edited by Keecee DeVenny. 

If you enjoyed this episode please consider leaving a review and helping others find it! To keep up with the work of LDF please visit our website at www.naacpldf.org and follow us on social media at @naacp_ldf. To keep up with the work of the Thurgood Marshall Institute, please visit our website at www.tminstituteldf.org and follow us on Twitter at @tmi_ldf. 

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 DeVenny 

If you enjoyed this episode please consider leaving a review and helping others find it! To keep up with the work of LDF please visit our website at www.naacpldf.org and follow us on social media at @naacp_ldf. To keep up with the work of the Thurgood Marshall Institute, please visit our website at www.tminstituteldf.org and follow us on Twitter at @tmi_ldf. 

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 disinvestment in public housing has profound consequences for Black and Brown communities, including high rates of poverty, health risks due to exposure to environmental hazards, and a lack of economic and educational opportunities. 

On this episode of Justice Above All, hosted by TMI Senior Fellow and former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Julian Castro, we explore the geography and environment of public housing, and how anti-public housing sentiment has impacted its development. 

Special thank you to Mike English for allowing us to use his recording from a housing rally in Montgomery County, Maryland to introduce the episode. 

Hosted by: Secretary Julian Castro 
Edited by: Keecee DeVenny 
Produced by: Keecee DeVenny and Jackie O'Neill 

If you enjoyed this episode please consider leaving a review and helping others find it! To keep up with the work of LDF please visit our website at www.naacpldf.org and follow us on social media at @naacp_ldf. To keep up with the work of the Thurgood Marshall Institute, please visit our website at www.tminstituteldf.org and follow us on Twitter at @tmi_ldf. 

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 electoral process and culminated in the violent attack on the Capitol. Joined by Christina Das (Legal Defense Fund) and Secretary Tahesha Way (New Jersey Secretary of State), they look at how election sabotage risks the lives of election worker and poses a grave threat to democracy. 

If you enjoyed this episode please consider leaving a review and helping others find it! To keep up with the work of LDF please visit our website at www.naacpldf.org and follow us on social media at @naacp_ldf. To keep up with the work of the Thurgood Marshall Institute, please visit our website at www.tminstituteldf.org and follow us on Twitter at @tmi_ldf. 

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 others find it! To keep up with the work of LDF please visit our website at www.naacpldf.org and follow us on social media at @naacp_ldf. To keep up with the work of the Thurgood Marshall Institute, please visit our website at www.tminstituteldf.org and follow us on Twitter at @tmi_ldf. 

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 


Produced by Keecee DeVenny and Jacqueline O'Neill 
Edited by Keecee DeVenny 

If you enjoyed this episode please consider leaving a review and helping others find it! To keep up with the work of LDF please visit our website at www.naacpldf.org and follow us on social media at @naacp_ldf. To keep up with the work of the Thurgood Marshall Institute, please visit our website at www.tminstituteldf.org and follow us on Twitter at @tmi_ldf.