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Social justice

    Anne Arundel County Executive Steuart Pittman talks about his support for Fair Share Maryland's tax reform plan during a press conference held at the Maryland State Education Association's office in Annapolis on Wednesday, March 6, 2024.
    Anne Arundel County to launch comprehensive hate crime prevention program
    Anne Arundel County has received a $1.2 million grant from the U.S. Department of Justice to reduce hate bias incidents in Anne Arundel.
    Our Parks Too! is a national effort to expose Black people to those spaces is being led by a duo of Baltimore-natives, Kristen Walker, 38, and Diamon Clark, 29.
    Baltimore duo making national park trips a ‘Black people thing’
    Launched by two Baltimore-natives in 2022, Our Parks Too! is a campaign that encourages Black people to visit and enjoy the country’s national parks system.
    Mandy Gordon of Cumberland pulls her wagon full of food she received from Western Maryland Food Bank.
    Rural Marylanders faced more food insecurity this summer
    Food insecurity in rural Maryland has been especially pronounced this summer, local advocates say. Low-income families are grappling with soaring grocery prices and unusually high temperatures that hit at the same time as federal reductions in food assistance programs.
    Push off! The 200 cyclists who turned out for the Ride Against Hate Friday night in Annapolis prepare for the nine-mile ride to City Dock. The ride was planned after a predominantly Black cycling club was attacked with bear spray and racist slurs.
    Black bicyclists were attacked with bear spray in Annapolis. They responded with 2-wheeled love.
    More than 100 members of the predominantly Black Push’N Pedals Cycling Club and other cyclists kicked off a Ride Against Hate Friday night in response to an ugly episode of racism in Annapolis earlier this summer.
    "iWitness: Media & the Movement" is a new exhibit at The Reginald F. Lewis Museum of African American History & Culture.
    New Reginald Lewis Museum exhibit shows power of media in the Civil Rights Movement
    “iWitness: Media & the Movement” is a new exhibit that launches Thursday at The Reginald F. Lewis Museum of African American History & Culture. The yearlong exhibit coincides with the 60th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin.

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    Annapolis Police Chief Ed Jackson talks about the investigation into the shooting death of Tre'on Makeup Hut, 18, of Glen Burnie in the Bywater neighborhood of Annapolis on Friday, Sept. 8.
    Did Annapolis police officers track their own deputy chief in fight over waste?
    Two Annapolis police officers who are union representatives used department tech to track a police major's vehicle as he worked from home, prompting police Chief Ed Jackson to suspend them. The officers have returned to work, but the incident lies at the heart of a planned no-confidence vote.
    Conflict on the Anne Arundel County Orphans Court is the latest sign that the system used by most counties needs reform.
    Orphans court ugliness is a sign that Maryland needs to abolish it
    A clash between Anne Arundel County Orphans Court judges and the conviction of a register of wills on a misconduct charge underscore the need to reform the system that presides over the administration of estates.
    A mural of crab pickers is seen on a wall in Crisfield, MD on June 12, 2024.
    Black women crab pickers risked it all in 1938. Maryland finally recognizes them.
    The Maryland Department of Transportation recently installed a historic marker on Route 413 in Crisfield to commemorate the 86th anniversary of a strike by about 600 workers — predominantly Black women — for fair wages in the seafood industry. It’s part of a statewide effort to recognize history that has been left out or gone unacknowledged.
    The sign remembering Howard Cooper sits in front of the old Towson jail. A white mob lynched the Black teenager in 1885.
    Remembering Howard Cooper, a Black teenager lynched in Towson
    Nearly 140 years ago, a white mob lynched a Black teenager in front of the old Towson jail. On Saturday, a ceremony remembers Howard Cooper.
    The Annapolis Police Department is being honored by the Caucus of African American Leaders.
    After years of criticizing Annapolis Police, civil rights group to honor department
    In what they are calling a “historic” event, the Annapolis Police Department, as well as the ACLU of Maryland, is being recognized by the Caucus of African American Leaders.

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    Straight ally Karen Dugan poses for a portrait outside of Leon’s Backroom Bar on July 3, 2024.
    Why the LGBTQIA+ community needs straight allies
    Now that Baltimore Pride is over, some in the LGBTQIA+ community know that the fight for gender minority rights and existence also relies heavily on having meaningful straight allies.
    CIB Baltimore skater, Teele, jumps over fellow skater, Taylor, mid-parade during the Baltimore Trans Pride Grand March on 6/29/2024 in Baltimore, MD.
    PHOTOS: A day to celebrate Trans Pride in Baltimore
    An estimated 2,500 people turned out for the third annual event to celebrate Baltimore's trans community. The event included a parade, a block party and a street renaming.
    Wreaths are laid at a ceremony memorializing the victims of the 2018 Capital Gazette shooting on Wednesday, June 28, 2023, in downtown Annapolis. A smaller ceremony Friday will mark six years since the deaths of Rob Hiaasen, Gerald Fischman, Wendi Winters, John McNamara and Rebecca Smith.
    Six years after the Capital Gazette murders, I’m still searching for meaning
    Lines carved by the wind on the sand are no different than what followed the violence that ended five lives on June 28, 2018 — energy moving from one form to another.
    President Joe Biden speaks to the House Democratic Caucus Issues Conference, Wednesday, March 1, 2023, in Baltimore.
    Biden pardons military members convicted for gay sex
    President Joe Biden pardoned former U.S. service members convicted of violating a now-repealed military ban on consensual gay sex, which will clear the way for them to regain lost benefits. The pardon goes even further to protect LGBTQIA+ service members than the controversial policy “don’t ask, don’t tell” that was repealed in 2010.
    Collage of photograph of elderly woman supporting herself with walker flanked by figures that have been cut out of the photograph. Red scribbles fill the background behind the photo and a red spray obscures the elderly woman's face.
    Following major lawsuit, state official in charge of nursing home inspections to retire
    The longtime head of the state office responsible for nursing home inspections will retire, officials announced about a month after a major lawsuit against the agency.

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    A parade participant is photographed clutching on to a rainbow flag at Baltimore’s Pride Parade held on June 15, 2024.
    Police say they didn’t spray a chemical agent at Pride. Why don’t those who attended believe it?
    A Baltimore spokesperson said that Mace was released after two groups of people got into an altercation, but people who attended think something else happened.
    Former Governor Larry Hogan faces Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks, who would be Maryland’s first Black U.S. senator.
    Those thinking of not voting in November are putting the country at risk
    Baltimore voters who might've passed up the opportunity to cast their ballots during the primaries must fully participate in November because of what's at stake nationally, journalist and professor E.R. Shipp says.
    Morelys Urbano
    Commentary: I needed to learn English, but my Spanish sustained me
    Morelys Urbano, a Morgan State University student and fellow who advocates for language justice, relates how her native language sustained her as she navigated the necessity of learning English.
    A group of fugitives escapes slavery in Maryland, depicted in an engraving for the 1872 book, "The Underground Railroad" by William Still.
    7 things to do: Juneteenth celebrates survival, not just emancipation
    I’m recounting the almost forgotten, violent history of the days after enslaved Marylanders were freed not because I want to spoil the Juneteenth Parade and Festival on June 22. But appreciating the meaning of this holiday is more than just a party. It is about honoring survival.
    Andrew Chung is a rising sophomore at Columbia University and a staff writer and editor for the Columbia Political Review and Columbia Undergraduate Law Review.
    Commentary: The human cost of disasters such as the Key Bridge collapse
    When disasters such as the Key Bridge collapse occur, media and government attention on issues related to the loss of life are often lacking, says a Columbia University student and writer.