Longest-running housing discrimination case outlives judge

In 1968 Sarah Garrett filed a suit against the city of Hamtramck, Michigan, for racial discrimination in housing. The suit may finally be resolved this year after 50 years. Damon Keith, the judge in the “black removal case” did not live to see his decision completed. He died this week.

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A Black Officer, a White Woman, a Rare Murder Conviction.

In this week’s edition of Race/Related from the New York Times, journalist John Eligon brings us the news out of Minneapolis, where police officer Mohamed Noor has been found guilty by a racially diverse jury for the shooting and killing of Justine Ruszczyk. Despite the relief that the justice system can actually hold its law enforcement officers accountable, some have found the circumstances of the verdict a bit ironic: the officer convicted is a black, Somali, Muslim man, and his victim was a white woman. With the tables of race turned in this case from the usual story (white cop shoots, kills black man), there are those who question whether the guilty verdict in this case can be chalked up to justice or hypocrisy. At the end of the day, all we can do is let the facts of the case speak for themselves – regardless of whose skin is what color – and let justice be served to all under the law, even those whose duty it is to enforce it.

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