Hate Bias Forum on May 11th

The Maryland Commission on Civil Rights, Maryland Office of the Attorney General & Maryland Commission on Civil Rights' Western Maryland Advisory Council will host a Hate Bias Reporting Forum. The Hate Bias Reporting Forum will provide community leaders and members of law enforcement with important information in response to the 2021 Hate Bias Report for the State of Maryland. The forum will engage local law enforcement, elected officials, and community leaders in discussions and information sharing on methods to facilitate more effective reporting as well as responding to bias incidents and hate crimes. For more information, visit our website.  To register, visit the registration page. REGISTRATION IS REQUIRED TO ATTEND!   Victim of Discrimination? Training & Partnerships HOME      ABOUT MCCR      SERVICES      PUBLICATIONS      EVENTS      PRESS      CONTACT US

Stay Connected with the Maryland Commission on Civil Rights

 April 27th Virtual Fair Housing Summit

Human Rights

Having trouble viewing this email? View it as a Web page. Fair Housing Forum On April 27th, from 9am-3pm, MCCR will host a virtual Fair Housing Summit that will provide targeted workshops, impactful keynote speakers and forums. Topics will include: Discrimination because of race, including Asian American and Pacific Islander, Black, indigenous, and other communities of color, and racial bias that restrict housing, neighborhood choice, and integrated communities. Discriminatory appraisals and fair lending Educating the community on protections under the Fair Housing Act and the jurisdiction's substantially equivalent law. This forum is sponsored by the US Department of Housing and Urban Development.  For more information or to register, visit https://www.eventbrite.com/e/602854141967​​     Victim of Discrimination? Training & Partnerships HOME      ABOUT MCCR      SERVICES      PUBLICATIONS      EVENTS      PRESS      CONTACT US

 Hate Crimes

Man Charged in Alleged Threats to Human Rights Campaign After Nashville Shooting

A Maryland man has been charged by federal authorities with making threats of violence to the D.C.-based LGBTQ organization Human Rights Campaign (HRC) in a March 28th voice mail, a day after the killing of six persons at a school in Nashville. Nashville police initially said the shooter, Audrey Hale, was a 28-year-old woman, and later said Hale was transgender, according to Hale's social media profile where he used masculine pronouns. It has not yet been confirmed how Hale identified.

The HRC is an American LGBTQ advocacy group. It is the largest LGBTQ political lobbying organization in the U. S. It "envisions a world where every member of the LGBTQ+ family has the freedom to live their truth without fear, and with equality under the law. We empower our 3 million members and supporters to mobilize against attacks on the most marginalized people in our community."

Since the shooting, some conservative commentators and Republican politicians have cited reports about the shooter’s gender identity in voicing anti-trans sentiments. The voice mail left for the HRC, which federal authorities said was traced to 34-year-old Adam Michael Nettina, of West Friendship, Maryland, used anti-trans rhetoric. Most criminal justice experts report that transgender people are rarely the shooters in mass killings, which are overwhelmingly carried out by men. Multiple studies have shown that trans people are more likely to be victims of violence than others.

In the threatening message to the HRC, the caller said many things that federal authorities said they believed were referring to the Nashville shooting and the shooter’s gender identity, according to court documents. Some threats, laden with profanity, made reference to specific acts of violence. Federal authorities filed a criminal complaint against Nettina on March 31st, and he was arrested later that evening, according to a news release from the U.S. attorney’s office for the District of Maryland. A detention hearing was held on on April 7th. If convicted, Nettina could face up to five years in federal prison.

A HRC spokesperson's statement said that the organization got two threatening voice mails late in March, and that it is “grateful to law enforcement for acting so quickly to keep our community safe.”

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Read the April 4, 2023 Washington Post article.

 Community Event

The Prince George's County Lynching Memorial Project is inviting people to attend their Community Remembrance Program to honor Mr. Thomas Juricks, the earliest known racial terror lynching victim in our county, which will be held on Saturday, April 15th, 2023 from 1-3 pm at Harmony Hall in Fort Washington, Maryland. Registration is encouraged but not required: https://bit.ly/TJuricks2023.

Victim of Discrimination? Training & Partnerships

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 Economic Justice Summit March 30-31, 2023

Economic Justice Summit at Georgetown University Law Center

March 30-31, 2023

Georgetown University Law Center, The Sarah and Bernard Gewirz Student Center

120 F Street NW, Floor 12, Washington, DC 20001

Free. Register. by March 29, 2023, 8:00 p.m.

For more information, contact: ABA Service Center (800) 285-2221 / service@americanbar.org

The theme for the American Bar Association's Civil Rights and Social Justice Section (CRSJ) 22-23 Bar Year is economic justice, fundamental to civil rights and social justice. This two-day Summit will cover issues such as guaranteed income, taxes and debt, housing, and the racial wealth gap. During the Summit, lawyers, activists, policymakers, and key stakeholders will formulate policy solutions to the nation's most critical economic disparities and devise strategies to implement such policy solutions.

As the American Bar Association (ABA)’s only membership entity exclusively dedicated to the advancement of human rights, civil liberties, and social justice, we seek to understand the role that lawyers can play in the pursuit of economic justice. A detailed agenda with program descriptions and speakers is available here.

The Economic Justice Summit is open to both in-person and virtual attendees, so please choose accordingly during the registration process. This event is complimentary and open to the public. Please share word of this event widely with your colleagues and networks.

Summit Supporters: Truist, Georgetown University Law Center, D.C. Bar, American Tax Policy Institute, ABA Section of Taxation, Francine J. Lipman & James E. Williamson.

Summit Co-Sponsors: ABA Business Law Section, ABA Center for Public Interest Law, ABA Commission on Homelessness and Poverty, ABA Criminal Justice Section, ABA Forum on Affordable Housing and Community Development Law, ABA Section of State and Local Government Law, ABA Young Lawyers Division.

Read the ABA's article about the Summit.

Read the Wealth Disparities and Civil Rights issue of CRSJ's Human Rights Magazine.

 HUD Housing Summit 2023

HUD Bridging the Wealth Gap: Asset Building and Economic Justice Summit

May 1, 2023

11am - 4pm ET,

Robert C. Weaver Federal Building, 451 7th Street, SW, Washington, D.C. 20410

In person / Virtual option available

In addition to housing, asset building and financial empowerment are key components of HUD’s efforts to support those who have been historically underserved. During this hybrid convening, attendees will hear from HUD leadership and peers about the importance of leveraging housing as a platform to build assets and work towards economic justice. Participants will engage with community leaders, staff from across the federal government, policy experts, affordable housing practitioners, and other stakeholders in the field.

Housing, asset building, and financial empowerment are key components of HUD’s efforts to support those who have been historically underserved.

Learn about the importance of housing as a platform for asset building and economic justice. Engage with community leaders, staff from across the federal government, policy experts, affordable housing practitioners, and other stakeholders. 

Register for the HUD Summit.

 Housing Segregation

Columbia, Maryland is Becoming More Racially Segregated

A new study by the National Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC) has found that Columbia, Maryland has changed from being a case study of housing desegregation in the 1970s to being racially segregated in 2023.

The planned communities of Columbia and Reston, Virginia, were case studies in a new era of housing desegregation in the 1960s. The planned community of Columbia was built by James Rouse, who stated that “Like any real city of 100,000, Columbia will be economically diverse, poly-cultural, multi-faith, and inter-racial.”  Columbia had no racial covenants and there was no racial steering of buyers. The city developed affordable housing for a mix of incomes. 

The Black population of Howard County increased rapidly from 1970 to 1980, with much of this in Columbia. In 1980, Columbia had low levels of segregation and an evenly distributed Black/White population on a neighborhood level. These measures gradually worsened. Three common measures of segregation at the community level all showed  that the evenness of distribution of the Black population and the exposure of Black and White groups to one another both declined, while Black isolation from Whites increased.

By 2020, Howard County was 21.4% Black and Columbia 28.1% Black. While there has been an increase in diversity in the County and Columbia, there has also been increasing segregation. White population has declined in Columbia similar to Maryland. In all, there has been a decline of nearly 15,000 White residents in Columbia over two decades. Currently, 76.5% of White residents own a home compared with 52% of Blacks. Blacks therefore are more likely to live in multi-family rental buildings, which cluster their population in areas with higher proportions of apartments.

The newer villages in Columbia have not been developed in the original spirit of economic and racial integration. The older Columbia villages of Harper’s Choice, Owen Brown, Wilde Lake, Oakland Mills, and Long Reach were developed with greater concentrations of affordable housing. Dorsey Search and River Hill were not developed until the 1990s and have few multifamily units, almost no affordable housing, and its schools are less than 10% Black.

The newish Dorsey Search and River Hill have only 22% and 9% renter households respectively, have much higher household incomes, and are relatively poor in Black/White integration and economic equity.  Dorseys Search and River Hill have Black populations below 10% compared to the 20% to 35% African American population in most other villages. The older Town Center and Wilde Lake have 76% and 57% renter households.

Only a small percentage of Columbia's housing stock is affordable when compared to the overall Baltimore metro. While the first villages built in Columbia broke barriers, those in recent decades have failed to sustain the mix of rentals, townhomes, and single-family homes that made Columbia a pocket of remarkable integration in a society still deeply struggling with racial inequality.

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Read the February 1, 2023 NCRC article.