S07 E12: Building an America as Good as Its Ideals: A Year in Review

Episode Transcript

Kanya Bennett
Welcome to Pod for the Cause, the official podcast of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights and the Leadership Conference Education Fund, where we take on the critical civil and human rights issues of our day. I’m your host, Kanya Bennett, coming to you from our nation’s capital, Washington D. C. Today’s podcast marks the last episode of season seven, and it has been a season, it has been a year. During this past year on Pod for the Cause, we explored the trials and triumphs of building an America as good as its ideals. From judicial diversity and justice reform, to education and voting rights, we discuss the state of our civil rights priorities. It was a privilege to have our conversations occur alongside milestone anniversaries, including the 70th anniversary of Brown versus Board of Education, the 60th anniversary of Freedom Sum-mer, the 60th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and a decade plus of Black Lives Matter. It was an honor to consider how our modern day civil rights work continues the legacy of these defining moments, cases, and legislation and the legacy of people too. This season we considered contributions to the movement from civil rights leaders like Bayard Rustin, Fannie Lou Hamer, and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. We also lifted the people who sparked movements like James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner, as well as George Floyd. Knowing where we have been certainly shaped our discussions about where we are going with the civil rights work ahead. With threats to our democracy and attacks on our rights as demon-strated by Project 2025, the erosion of DEIA, diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility, vot-er miss and disinformation, all of which we anticipate continuing given recent election out-comes. We must once again leverage the collective power of our diverse coalition to advance the civil rights agenda of we the majority. In this episode, my colleagues and I will reflect upon the accomplishments and progress made over this past year, but also touch on the work needed to achieve in America that reflects we the majority. Joining us for this conversation today are four of my resourceful and resilient colleagues who carry forward our civil rights agenda day in and day out. First, let me welcome back Tierra Bradford, our senior program manager for our justice team. Thank you for joining us, Tierra. Welcome back. Welcome back.

Tierra Bradford
Thank you, Kanya, for having me. I’m glad to be back.

Kanya Bennett
We also have Kylee Reynolds, a policy council with our Fair Courts team. Excited you are here today, Kylee. Hello.

Kylee Reynolds
Thanks, Kanya. I’m excited to be here.

Kanya Bennett
Shekinah Hall, our senior associate on the Education Equity team. Shekinah, welcome.

Shekinah Hall
Thanks so much, Kanya. Really excited to be here today.

Kanya Bennett
Last but not least, let me say hello to Chanel Sherrod, a manager for our government affairs team. Hi, Chanel.

Chanel Sherrod
Hi, Kanya. Happy to be here today.

Kanya Bennett
Thank you all for being here. Let’s get to it. Tierra, let me start with you. You were here in Feb-ruary when we talked about Black liberation, Black freedom and Black joy. The movement for Black Lives is a little over a decade old, and this year we marked the 10- year anniversary of the police killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. That killing renewed demands for po-lice accountability and reform across the country and ultimately led the Leadership Conference to respond with a Vision for Justice. Can you talk to us about our Vision for Justice? What is it? What does it do?

Tierra Bradford
Vision for Justice is really the baby of the justice team here at the Leadership Conference and it’s essentially a platform that has state and federal policy recommendations that cover all of the criminal legal systems. So all the way from police investigations and safety, and arrest, all the way to sentencing and reentry and the barriers that folks who are trying to reenter society face. Essentially envisioning what public safety, what the criminal legal system could look like in this country. It’s about building a more just society and a more equitable society since the crim-inal legal system touches so many parts of our lives and affects so many people’s lives. The plank is broken up into 18 different planks that include the different phases of the criminal legal system, so pretrial, probation, war on drugs, sentencing. Those 18 different planks are guided by three main principles, which include equity and accountability. So holding those in power ac-countable while also investing in our communities. Human rights and dignity, so healing and human dignity when people are going through the criminal legal system and trying not to overly punish people and oppress people who are going through the system. Our last principle is re-building communities. So reckoning with and repairing the harm that have been caused to many communities in this country, especially Black and Brown communities and low income com-munities. Taking all that into account, it really is just a platform that shows people the different things they can be asking for on the federal and state level when they want to work towards a better criminal legal system.

Kanya Bennett
Thank you for breaking down Vision for Justice, Tierra. Tell us where you’ve seen policies con-sistent with Vision for Justice advanced.

Tierra Bradford
If we’re talking about our wins, some of the wins that we’ve been seeing, I can start with the three different types of ones that we’ve kind of seen, especially in the past year. Something that we’ve been pushing for at the Leadership Conference is more equitable prison phone rates in prisons and jails. Really phone calls and video calls in prison and jails should be free. If they aren’t going to be free, then they should at least be way cheaper. It shouldn’t cost an arm and a leg for someone who is in jail to be able to communicate with their family members. So this year we saw some adjustments and regulations to phone rates in prisons and jails by the FCC. Another type of win that we saw this year are fighting acts and bad policing bills. Police week happens every year. Sometimes there are bills like the Protect and Serve Act that try to make harms that happen to a police officer a human rights crime essentially. There are already many protections for police officers and really that type of legislation can lead to excessive sentenc-ing for folks who have interactions with police. Different types of legislation like that we de-fended against this year. Of course there was a major win in Dallas this year. Our partners at Dallas Action and another organization, Ground Game Texas, worked to decriminalize small amounts of marijuana. So now folks can carry small amounts of marijuana around with them. They don’t have to worry about being arrested or harassed by police. Most of that work was done by the people on the ground, but I’m proud to say that the Leadership Conference, some of the reports and research that we did with our partners in Dallas led to that movement to get that question on the ballot. So those are some of the wins that we saw this year that directly are things that we asked for in our platform in Vision for Justice, the things that we want to see in our society.

Kanya Bennett
Thank you for lifting that success over this past year, Tierra. Also thank you for naming that defensive work is needed. That defensive work can be counted as a win as well, so appreciate you elevating that, making that point. Kylee, let me turn to you. Let’s talk about fair courts. On our March episode, we celebrated the 15- year anniversary of Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s ap-pointment to the US Supreme Court in 2009. That made her the first Latina and the third woman to serve on the court. We then went on to discuss the historic number of diverse federal judicial appointments that the Biden administration has made. Kylee, in this spirit continuing the legacy of some of our diverse Supreme Court justices who have been sadly recently appointed to the court, let’s talk about why we need a diverse judiciary. Can you remind our listeners what a di-verse judiciary looks like?

Kylee Reynolds
A diverse judiciary is an effective one. One that is more committed to equal justice because it’s reflective of our country and our communities. Our diverse judiciary should be composed of fair- minded judges who bring a variety of professional and their lived experiences to the bench. For far too long the default for what has been considered a fair and impartial judge has looked a certain way and generally speaking, that was a cisgender, straight, white man who came from a background as a prosecutor or as a corporate attorney. This has been the default for way too long. People have been excluded from consideration because they didn’t look like this or have this background. We know that people who come in with other civil rights experience and lived experiences are vital to our court’s function. People with experience defending reproductive rights, defending LGBTQ rights, affirmative action, acting as public defenders and criminal de-fense attorneys, which are a crucial part of our criminal legal system yet are vastly underrepre-sented on the bench. For there to be equal justice under law, there needs to be a judiciary that looks like us, our country, and our communities. For the last 75 years, the Leadership Confer-ence has been working to achieve this judiciary and we’re not stopping now.

Kanya Bennett
All right, Kylee, let’s not stop. So thank you for describing what a diverse judiciary looks like and naming why it’s important, why we need judges who look like us. They are making deci-sions that impact our everyday lives. Can you also share the latest stats on judges? A lot has been accomplished this year. There’s been a lot of progress since we recorded the March epi-sode. Please break some of that down for us.

Kylee Reynolds
We still have a long way to go, but the Biden administration has made tremendous strides these past four years with the help of Senator Durbin and the Judiciary Committee as well as Leader Schumer. For far too long, women and in particular women of color have been excluded from judicial service. When President Biden was running, he promised that his first nomination of the Supreme Court would be a Black woman, which he fulfilled with the historic nomination and confirmation of Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson. We’re very excited to see, still celebrating. Go-ing further, the recent confirmation of Tiffany Johnson to the Northern District of Georgia marked the 40th Black woman confirmed to a lifetime judgeship during the Biden administra-tion. In our nation’s history, there have only ever been 102 lifetime confirmations of Black women to the federal bench, meaning that President Biden has appointed nearly 40% of all Black women to ever serve as federal judges. Overall the numbers are just as impressive. 63% of the nominees are women and 60% of those are women of color. 60% of the nominees overall are people of color, including many historic firsts for a lot of our courts. There have been 12 LGBTQ judges confirmed, more than any other president ever, which included Beth Robinson who became the first lesbian federal appellate judge when she was confirmed with the Second Circuit. While we are very excited to see a lot of these strides, there are still many communities that are vastly underrepresented on the federal bench, including Latino and Latina folks, people living with disabilities, and the native community to name a few. Also notable, our country has never had a transgender and non- binary judicial nominee. We applaud the legacy that President Biden leaves, but we still have to continue this work even before the end of this Congress. Cur-rently, there are four pending circuit court nominees with important backgrounds in labor rights and protecting diversity in education and our religious freedom. Yet Leader Schumer has made a deal with Senate Republicans that would deprive these nominees of ever receiving a vote. We are continuing this work to urge him to reconsider this deal and to finish the great work that they started.

Kanya Bennett
Lots accomplished this past year, but like you said, lots more to do. We’ll circle back to that point a little bit later in this episode. Speaking of the importance of court, Shekinah, let me bring you into this conversation. In May, we celebrated the 70th anniversary of the Supreme Court’s decision in Brown versus Board of Education. A few months later, we celebrated the 60th anniversary of the enactment of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Both Brown and the 64 Act were responsible for ending racial segregation in schools. Since then, ever since Brown, ever since the 64 Act, the Leadership Conference has been working to fulfill its promise of this legis-lation of the Supreme Court decision, and this year was no different. So I want to talk about a few of the Leadership Conference resources that were put forward this year that certainly ad-vanced Brown and the 64 Act. The civil rights principles for multilingual learner education, can you tell us about that, Shekinah?

Shekinah Hall
The Leadership Conference along with members of our coalition, sought to identify fundamen-tal elements of multilingual learner education that protect civil rights and advanced equity for children whose first language is a language other than English. We are all so fortunate that there are so many children in the United States who are learning more than one language between their homes and their schools. This powerful asset enriches their own lives and education and it sets them up to be builders of our multiracial, multicultural, and multilingual democracy. Un-fortunately, the fact that a child’s first language is a language other than English has too often been viewed as a hindrance, a fault, or a justifiable basis for their segregation from their peers and limits on their educational opportunity. This errant view has even contributed to policies and practices that try to take home languages away from children through the use of punishment and coercion. In order to ensure that children who speak more than one language have access to and are included in comprehensive, diverse and high- quality education settings, we need policy that reflects the principles outlined in our civil rights principles for multilingual learner educa-tion. The civil rights community developed this guide to call on decision makers at all levels to create and maintain an equitable education system for children by incorporating these principles into all relevant policies. This is a resource that we encourage parents and families, students, advocates, in addition to policy makers to use in their advocacy. We published these principles in an exciting seven languages including Arabic, Chinese, English, Hindi, Korean, Spanish, and Vietnamese to expand access to this resource across our communities.

Kanya Bennett
Thank you for sharing that background around those principles, Shekinah. There was also the Celebration of Reading. Can you tell us about that event?

Shekinah Hall
We believe that all students have the right to a learning environment where they’re treated with respect and dignity and have the chance to learn and grow and work together, learning with and from those who are different from themselves to create a more just and equitable future. This is the learning environment that’s supported by the vast majority of families across the country. Unfortunately, proponents of discrimination and exclusion are creating policies and legislation to harm students and undermine the learning environments for everyone, which we’ve seen in a wave of book bans and censorship policies across the nation. We know that book banning and censorship take choices away from all students and their families and limit the opportunities of parents, families, and children to access in education and think critically about the world around them. To showcase the learning environment our children deserve the Leadership Conference along with our cohost People for the American Way organized a celebration of reading. This event turned out between 300 and 400 parents, grandparents, students, and educators to cele-brate books and schools that allowed children to be themselves and learn from people who are different from them. We gave away over 1000 free books. We had live performances from local dancers and musicians. We held read- alongs with banned book authors, parents, teachers, and drag queens. We had lots of family- friendly fun to celebrate books that represent all of us. This was a powerful showing to reject the far right- wing agenda, to whitewash our history, erase our identities, and censor books that support racial, LGBTQ plus, and gender equity and to remind politicians and fear mongerers that every child and every family deserve to be seen, heard, and included in our schools.

Kanya Bennett
What an amazing event, Shekinah. Okay, let me ask you about one more thing. I know that the ED team has been busy, we’ve all been busy. Let me ask you about one more thing. We Shall Not Be Moved, a policy agenda to achieve the national imperative of racial equity and diversity in higher education. What is it? Why do we need it?

Shekinah Hall
So in September, we released We Shall Not Be Moved a policy agenda to achieve the national imperative of racial equity and diversity in higher education, which you all can find at weshallnotbemoved. org. We Shall Not Be Moved is a policy agenda with 100 policy recom-mendations to point to the path forward beyond the Supreme Court’s decision to inaudible af-firmative action. We have policy recommendations from the civil rights community on what federal, state, and institutional policymakers can and must do to achieve racial equity and diver-sity in higher education. Our goals are to transform higher education. Among many things, this policy agenda is intended to provide advocates and allied policymakers with concrete policy changes that they can advance in the short and long term to support the goals of a racially equi-table and diverse system of higher education. The agenda is also intended to influence public narratives about what is still possible in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision in the stu-dents for fair admissions cases, against the University of North Carolina and Harvard College and demonstrate the continued need and legality of solutions. Finally, it’s also intended to demonstrate the consensus views of the civil rights community and provide a basis for future advocacy. Our policy agenda is dense and focuses on six areas. Recruitment, admissions, fi-nance, campus climate, campus support programs, and partnerships with P- 12 education sys-tems. That’s pre- K through 12th grade. This was intentional to ensure that policymakers know the range of tools they have at their disposal to achieve racial equity and diversity in higher ed-ucation. Advocates, students, faculty, staff, and policymakers can use this resource to design policies that transform the future of higher education. Now more than ever, our country needs the civil rights community to show up. We must continue to affirm that racial progress has al-ways been and will always be a priority and necessity in higher education. My colleague likes to use this analogy. We are all interconnected as people like the root systems of a tree. When one tree thrives, those around it will also thrive. So we must all demand and create transformative policies that are rooted in fairness, equity, and the opportunity that will lead us to collective lib-eration.

Kanya Bennett
Thank you, Shekinah. I appreciate all the work that you and the ED team have done this past year. Chanel, let me turn to you. So much of this season on Power for the Cause, we talked about voting rights. Voting rights was a part of every conversation and how could it not be with this year’s presidential election and democracy on the ballot? There was also the 60th anniver-sary of Freedom Summer, an effort to secure the vote for Black Mississippians with national implications that continue to impact efforts to protect the vote today like our And Still I Vote campaign. So, Chanel, tell us about the progress we’ve made in the fight for voting rights this past year and tell us about a win you’re especially proud of.

Chanel Sherrod
In response to the legislative grid box surrounding voting rights legislation like the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, we have seen a uptick of state- level efforts to expand and protect voting access. For example, states like California, Oregon, and Vermont have implemented or expanded automatic voter registration. These initiatives make it easier for people to vote and increased voter registration rates. Several states continue to make progress on restoring voting rights for formerly incarcerated individuals. For example, Minnesota passed legislation allowing individuals to vote after completing their prison terms even if they re-mained on parole or probation. This change was actually upheld by the Minnesota Supreme Court just in August of this year. Nebraska’s Supreme Court ruled that individuals who have completed their felony sentences are eligible to vote overturning previous restrictions. North Carolina voters successfully passed a measure to end felony disenfranchisement, restoring vot-ing rights to all individuals upon completion of their sentence, probation, or parole. Now alt-hough we have seen a bit of a standstill in passing federal voting rights legislation, we have seen the states really pick up the baton to push forward and protecting voting rights at the state level. Now, I did want to discuss a little bit about a win that we are very proud of. Although this win occurred in 2023, we are still seeing the effects in 2024. The Supreme Court decision in Allen V. Milligan was a huge win for the voting rights community where they held that Alabama’s congressional redistricting plan violated section two of the Voting Rights Act by diluting Black voters political power. The court affirmed a lower court’s decision requiring Alabama to redraw its map to provide Black voters with a meaningful opportunity to elect their preferred candi-dates in two of the state’s seven districts. The court’s ruling emphasized that the Voting Rights Act does not mandate proportional representation but ensures that minority voters have an equal opportunity to participate in the political process. Now this led to a new map being drawn and used for the 2024 congressional elections that included two districts whose Black voting age populations where 51.9% and 48.7% and provided Black voters an opportunity to elect candi-dates of their choice. We are very, very proud of that win and are still celebrating it to this day.

Kanya Bennett
Yes, Chanel, we are still celebrating that win. So tell us about some of these voices over this past year, voices that have been critical in this fight for voting rights. Obviously we’re talking federal, state, we’re talking about courts, we’re talking about legislatures. What are some of the voices influencing some of the outcomes there?

Chanel Sherrod
So hearing from those who are or have been directly impacted and those who are actually on the ground have been of paramount importance, especially in election years, such as this hearing from people who are facing discrimination, receiving misinformation, whose rights are being diminished. Many times we are hearing from other advocates, the civil rights community and policymakers, which are all extremely important. The lived experiences of those who are being targeted or affected are incredibly helpful to provide insight to the direct implications of the restrictive and expansive policies and rulings being made and allows us to address the issues as they arise. We cannot overstate the importance of these lived narratives of people who are actu-ally on the ground. So we are responsive to the needs of our communities.

Kanya Bennett
So in addition to voting being central to the preservation of our democracy, another theme that was reflected throughout season seven of Pod for the Cause was that civil rights are not isolated. Honestly, all of you have already touched on that point in some of the initial conversation we’ve had. Our civil rights are part of a larger interconnected framework that sustains democracy, equality, and justice. As such, I want to ask each of you how community safety and criminal justice are linked to fair and diverse courts and how our courts shape education equity, and vot-ing rights. What are the linkages between education and voting and criminal justice reform? I think you all appreciate where I’m going with this. Tierra, I want to go back to you and I want you to talk about how fair courts, education equity, and voting rights are linked to public safety.

Tierra Bradford
Yeah, I feel like I was just talking to my colleagues yesterday about the ways in which all the different issue areas we work on are interconnected. Something that has really been moving forward in the criminal legal space is community safety, investing in the things that actually keep us safe. A world that invests in housing and health and education and in community safety, and the basic needs that people need is a world that prioritizes true public safety. We call this the evidence- based approach to safety in the criminal legal space. Research shows that invest-ments in these different areas keep people from being involved in the criminal legal behavior and violence and keeps them from entering the criminal legal system in the first place. We know that wealthier communities that are well- funded are not experiencing violence in the same ways that underfunded communities are. Many people are just trying to survive and they need help to do that. So we have to be investing in the things that keep people safe and we have to be allowing them to have their voices heard in the democratic process. All these things work together and are the things that actually keep people safe and make them feel safe. So that in-cludes everything. Health care, child care, economic safety, people having a place to stay and people having housing. Those are the things that are keeping people safe and those are the dif-ferent issues that folks at the Leadership Conference all work on. So we’re all just working to-wards the same goal really.

Kanya Bennett
Thank you, Tierra. Yes, we were in fact just talking about that yesterday at a team retreat. So, Kylee, why should we care about fair courts? You talked a little bit about this in your earlier contribution to the discussion, but why should we care?

Kylee Reynolds
Our courts impact our daily lives every day, whether we realize it or not. They make decisions that affect our ability to live our authentic lives, free from discrimination, protect our funda-mental rights, like access to the ballot box, safe housing and public accommodations, our ability to obtain good healthcare and inclusive and comprehensive education for our children and so much more. I first became interested in courts when I was studying access to healthcare for youth and foster care, particularly access to gender- affirming care for transgender kids. Too often their ability to access life- saving care was dependent on how the courts and their state ruled. Reading these different opinions demonstrated just how much who sits on the bench and decisions they make can impact someone’s life. Actually in a full circle moment, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments earlier this month on this very topic, argued by the first transgender attorney to ever argue a case at the Supreme Court. Chase Strangio did a fantastic job. We know what precious our rights are. Yet this is coming to stark contrast with the recent decisions by our courts, evidenced most significantly by the court’s ruling in the Dobbs case, which took away the fundamental right to abortion. Which the court of previously recognized for decades. The right to control our bodies and make our own decisions about healthcare have been taken away from millions of Americans with just one opinion from the court. Decisions like this impact our lives, even if we never even enter a courtroom. We know the power that these courts have and we need them to wield it for good.

Kanya Bennett
Absolutely, Kylee. Shekinah, what about education? I feel like it’s obvious that education serves as the foundation for everything else, our ability to achieve access every other civil right. Why do we want safe, inclusive, and diverse schools and other educational opportunities?

Shekinah Hall
One of the first things that come to mind is an analogy that schools should be both a window and a mirror for students, an avenue for children to learn about and understand the world around them, but also for children to see themselves reflected in their environment. So safety and inclu-sion and diversity in school is essential for children to have a sense of belonging, which can re-ally impact their sense of identity and confidence in the long term. When schools are safe, healthy, and inclusive, they can foster creativity, innovation. They help students develop critical thinking and problem- solving skills. All qualities that lead them to becoming productive adults and contribute to keeping our democracy strong. On a personal note, I really understand firsthand the impact not being in inclusive and diverse spaces can have on your educational journey. I’m a first generation American who attended public schools in the Deep South. While I did have access to opportunities, I was not in spaces a lot of the time that I could see myself reflected in terms of the curriculum, in terms of school leadership in the community around me. It wasn’t until I had the opportunity to leave for college and then work in our amazing coalition where we have such a diverse representation of communities for our advocacy that could really reflect and see the difference and see how much my educational experience was limited by not having inclusive and diverse components of the education system around me. As you said, this is basic. Educational equity is a civil and human rights, full stop. America should be a place where every child, no matter their unique circumstances, can grow up to be whatever they dream. Yet our nation continues to create discriminatory barriers that unfairly limit or deny ed-ucational opportunities. The tragedies that have occurred in schools across the country demand serious investments in evidence- based policies and practices that keep children and staff safe and that don’t exacerbate the school- to- prison pipeline, further criminalize marginalized chil-dren or increase the over- policing of students in schools and communities. These investments in policy changes are needed to prevent further disenfranchisement of historically marginalized students, including students of color, native students, students with disabilities, LGBTQ plus youth, religious minorities, sexual assault survivors, and immigrant students, among others. Our civil rights principles for safe, healthy, and inclusive school climates is a roadmap to creating learning environments all students deserve. And includes guidance on comprehensive multi- tiered systems of support, counseling, positive behavior supports, restorative justice programs, and trauma- informed care. You can read more about those principles on our website.

Kanya Bennett
Thank you, Shekinah, for lifting those principles and thank you for your personal reflection as well. I also want to go to this point you made about strong, educated students making for strong, educated adults who keep our democracy going forward. I think that brings me back to you, Chanel. I want to talk about voting rights. How are voting rights connected to everything else and like education, is it one of our foundational civil rights upon which everything else rests?

Chanel Sherrod
Caring about voting rights is essential because voting serves as the foundation of democracy. It ensures that every individual has a voice in shaping the policies, the decisions that impact their lives. The ability to vote directly influences critical areas like education as we’ve just heard, housing and just civil rights overall. For example, for education, local and state governments determine public school funding, curricula, teacher salaries, and school safety measures. Voter participation influences who makes these decisions. Leaders who prioritize equitable education policy can address disparities in school resources, technology access, and infrastructure. For housing, local zoning laws, rent control measures, and housing subsidies are crafted by elected officials. Voting ensures that policies reflect the needs of these diverse communities. Just for civil rights overall, voting determines who enacts and enforces laws protecting against discrim-ination and housing, employment, education, and criminal justice. Diverse representation leads to policy decisions that better address systemic inequities. Without robust voting rights, entire communities can easily be excluded from these decision- making processes, which would per-petuate cycles of inequity. Restrictive voting laws disproportionately impact marginalized groups such as people of color, low- income families, and formerly incarcerated individuals which exacerbate disparities across all areas of life. Ensuring equitable voting rights empowers communities to advocate for fair policies, elect leaders who represent their needs and interests, and hold policymakers accountable for their decisions. In essence, voting rights are not just about access to the ballot. They are about ensuring that everyone has a stake in the policies that shape our collective future. By protecting and expanding voting rights, we strengthen democra-cy and work toward a society where opportunities and resources are equitably distributed amongst all.

Kanya Bennett
Thank you, Chanel. You are moving us toward that collective future I now want to talk about. We’ve talked about some success over the past year. Tierra, talk to us about how we protect and build upon this past year’s success with our justice work in the year ahead.

Tierra Bradford
I’m definitely excited to hear from my colleagues too about their perspectives on this, but I know I was just speaking with one of our partners at the ACLU, Cynthia Roseberry, and we were having a conversation. She was like, ” Yeah, we just need to be bold. We need to make sure that we’re being bold.” I think that is so true. I think many people see the upcoming year and they’re just thinking defensively. While defense work is going to be important, protecting our civil rights and the things we already have is going to be important, we can’t stop asking for the things that we want. We can’t stop being creative about how we’re going to get those things. Like I mentioned earlier in this episode, community safety, that type of work is newer in the criminal legal space and I think we need to be pushing even harder on it. I know there’s legisla-tion like the People’s Response Act and the Mental Health Justice Act, and there’s all other types of pieces of legislation that aren’t directly about the criminal legal system, but that will ultimately help public safety that we can be focusing on this year. I think we just need to make sure that we continue to push for those things, continue to ask for those things. We might have unlikely allies. Thinking about the next few years, we do need to think about who are the people we don’t usually partner with and how are we going to partner with them to get the things that we want?

Kanya Bennett
Thanks, Tierra. Yep, you’re right. You’re right. We should be bold, be creative, figure out crea-tive ways to get our agenda advanced. So, Kylee, after a very successful year for our fair courts work, for judicial nominations, what comes next?

Kylee Reynolds
We never give up. That’s the biggest thing. Strengthening the judiciary is the work of a lifetime, not just one administration. Just as it can’t be built with one administration, it also can’t be bro-ken by one administration. Our vision for a fair judiciary doesn’t change from president to pres-ident. That said, we have experienced this administration before. We need everyone to stay in-formed and stay engaged in this topic. Educate your communities about who these nominees are and why it matters who sits on our courts. The president nominates, the Senate confirms all of these judges. Every senator votes on every judge and often recommend people to become nomi-nees. Call your senators and let them know that you want to see nominees with demonstrated commitment to civil and human rights come from your state. If the senator supports a nominee without that or has a demonstrated bias like we unfortunately saw from so many of the nomi-nees during the last Trump administration, let them know that too. These judges once confirmed serve lifetime appointments and their impact we feel it for years to come. Senators, they care about what their constituents care about and they need to know that a fair judiciary is one of the things that you care about. For those that are considering applying to be a federal judge or know someone that is but are hesitant to do so given the incoming administration, do it anyway. When the senators recommend nominees to the White House from their state, they also need to have good applicants to choose from. Regardless of outcome we always need to have that option ready. Stay vigilant. Don’t despair, and never, never, never give up.

Kanya Bennett
Never give up. That’s right, Kylee. I’m appreciating all of this advice being offered to our lis-teners. Shekinah, what’s next for our education work? How will we be continuing the legacy of Brown?

Shekinah Hall
My colleague said it so well, the path forward requires boldness and persistence. This is not a moment to sit down and go underground while we wait. This is a moment to continue and press forward with a proactive agenda for the education system and for the democracy we want to see and what we know people deserve to have. We’ll continue holding our elected officials ac-countable at every level and continue to engage with the media and continue to provide oppor-tunities for the public to also stay engaged and learn about what’s going on. As Kylee said, we also want to remind everyone how important it is to call members of Congress. Anyone can pick up the phone and call and lobby their elected officials. You can call the White House. You can write letters to the editor and you can also engage with the media. This is the time to be bold and be persistent. We encourage people to also work with other people in your community to really participate and advocate for the change you want to see as well. To learn more about our work and the things we will push forward in the inaudible in the coming year, we encourage everyone to visit our education equity page on our website civilrights.org.

Kanya Bennett
Thank you, Shekinah. Yes, folks, get over to our website, get over to our resources. I will steer you all there too at the close. Chanel, what about voting rights? What’s ahead with democracy still on the line?

Chanel Sherrod
This is a time to get creative. Protecting and building upon our voting rights work requires a multifaceted approach that will combine advocacy, education, legal challenges, and policy re-form. We have to strengthen legal protections and strengthen enforcement by ensuring that the DOJ has the resources to monitor and challenge discriminatory voting laws. Also supporting legal challenges against restrictive voting measures such as voter ID laws, purging voter rolls, and limiting early voting. We should also engage in public education. Really educating the pub-lic about their voting rights, the deadlines, and how to participate in elections and counter disin-formation by developing tools to identify and debunk misinformation about voting processes and election security and promote trusted sources of election information. We also have to mo-bilize communities, especially now through grassroots advocacy, supporting local organizations that engage underrepresented communities and voter registration and turnout efforts and focus on building trust and empowering communities that face systemic barriers to voting. We also must ensure we’re investing in election infrastructure by providing funding to update election equipment, ensuring security, and accessibility and support election officials by really increas-ing resources and training for election administrators and protecting election workers from threats and harassment. As I mentioned earlier about the state- level reforms, many voting poli-cies are determined at the state level, making state advocacy critical. So we must push for state constitutional amendments, protecting voting rights, fight restrictive voting measures intro-duced in state legislators, and support pro- voter ballot initiatives where possible. As my col-league Shekinah mentioned, really monitoring and holding officials accountable. We have to use oversight and public pressure, which is going to be important now more than ever to ensure elected officials and lawmakers are upholding voting rights. Also, we need to ensure that we’re tracking legislative and judicial decisions impacting voting rights and respond through advoca-cy and legal actions or partnering with organizations who can do the legal actions. Really by prioritizing these strategies, we can ensure that we are safeguarding current voting rights and hopefully expand access to the ballot, ensuring that our democracy truly works for everyone.

Kanya Bennett
Thank you, Chanel. Appreciate those calls to action. Appreciate that advice, all of you. You have really given our listeners a lot of food for thought, reflecting on where we have been and what’s ahead and how folks can plug in. So Tierra, Kylee, Shekinah, and Chanel, it has been so good to catch up with you. You are welcome back anytime. Before I let you go, in the spirit of one of my favorite episodes from this season, Music in the Movement, I want to ask each of you to leave us with one song or one artist who is going to motivate you as we close out 2024 and head into the civil rights fights ahead in 2025. Tierra.

Tierra Bradford
I would say my music artist of choice would be GloRilla the rapper. I love her quote she had this year where she was like, ” At the end of the day, the day’s got to end.” I feel like that is so real. I feel like yes, we’re going to work our butts off to do the things that we can do, but then there are going to be times when we need to rest or it’s the end of the work day and then we just keep it pushing the next day and the next day. So that’s who’s going to be motivating me this year.

Kanya Bennett
All right, Tierra. Glorilla. Kylee.

Kylee Reynolds
So I very much identified with the lyrics to I Can Do It With a Broken Heart, by Taylor Swift, particularly the line, ” I cry a lot, but I’m so productive.” So I think it’s important that we acknowledge that the work is going to be difficult. It always is, but especially might be more so going forward. We can do it. We can fight through it. We can do it with a broken heart.

Kanya Bennett
All right, we got some Taylor in the mix. Shekinah.

Shekinah Hall
I have a feeling that Chanel and I might have similar answers. Who am I kidding? My favorite artist is Beyonce. Similar to what Tierra said about being in the moment and taking the moment for what it is, there are moments that we need to be on and be fighting. There are moments to rest and take care of yourself. Beyonce has a song for every season, every emotion. So that is what will be getting me through.

Kanya Bennett
All right, Shekinah, we got that Beyhive represented here on Pod for the Cause. Chanel.

Chanel Sherrod
Shekinah was correct. My artist is Beyonce and my song is Break My Soul. I just love it. It’s a song of resilience. You won’t break my soul. It’s something that I listen to, especially through the election and the aftermath. No matter what’s going to be thrown at us, it’s not going to break us. We’re going to push through and resilience is something we’re going to need for the next four years.

Kanya Bennett
So look, I appreciate Beyonce, but I think folks know that is not necessarily my artist. I’m going to throw another Beyonce song into the mix. I’m going to add Energy. That was at our team re-treat yesterday. I also think that speaks to the season we are in. So all right, I will give some Beyonce love as well. So look, Tierra, Kylee, Shekinah, Chanel, thank you again for taking the time to share your insight and expertise with our listeners. It has been great to be in dialogue with each of you.

Chanel Sherrod
You too, Kanya. Thank you.

Shekinah Hall
Thank you, Kanya.

Kanya Bennett
Thank you again, colleagues, for taking the time to share your insight and expertise with our listeners. It’s been great to be in dialogue. Thank you for joining us today on Pod for the Cause, the official podcast of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights and the Leader-ship Conference Education Fund. For more information, please visit civilrights. org and to con-nect with us, hit us up on Instagram and Twitter at Civil Rights Org. You can text us text civil rights, that’s two words, civil rights to 52199 to keep up with our latest updates. Be sure to sub-scribe to our show on your favorite podcast app and leave a five star review. Thanks to our pro-duction team, Shalonda Hunter, Dina Craig, Taylor Nicholas, and Oprah Cunningham, my col-leagues at the Leadership Conference. Shout out to Podville Media, our external production crew. That’s it from me, your host, Kanya Bennett. Until next year, let’s keep fighting for an America as good as its ideals.

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