Justice Above All
The Thurgood Marshall Institute at the Legal Defense Fund brings you Justice Above All, a quarterly series about the evolution of, and continued need for, racial justice advocacy. We’ve entered a time where many of the building blocks underpinning our work for racial justice are being questioned or actively undermined. Justice Above All provides an accessible way to help inform the national debate, revive our history, and remember how far we still must go in our quest to realize the ideals for which Thurgood Marshall and the advocates he led fought.
Episodes
30 episodes
Brown at 70: The Continued Struggle for Education Equity
In 1955, the Supreme Court instructed the states to begin desegregation plans with "all deliberate speed." This episode of Justice Above All highlights the complexities of realizing equal educational opportunities through desegregation. We expl...
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26:50
Brown II at 70: The Fourteenth Amendment and the Myth of Neutrality
This episode of Justice Above All examines how the Supreme Court interpreted the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause in Brown v. Board of Education (1954), and how today’s legal arguments decontextualize the Amendment’s historical co...
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29:27
Reproductive Justice and the Role of Birthing Centers
This episode of Justice Above All highlights the centrality of birthing centers, which provide historically informed and culturally competent care to Black birthing people, to the realization of reproductive justice. We will discuss a wave of n...
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41:56
The Promises and Threats of Algorithms in Housing
Algorithms and predictive technologies are being used to an increasing extent in housing (i.e., tenant screening, lending, appraisals, housing advertising). While algorithms have the potential to increase equity by removing human bias from deci...
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36:02
Who Holds Sheriffs Accountable?
Despite being the only elected law enforcement officials, sheriffs operate with impunity. In fact, many people are not aware of the sweeping power that sheriffs hold over law enforcement, jails, and to an increasing extent national politics and...
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52:24
Democracy at a Crossroads: Voter Challenges and Turnout
This episode of Justice Above All discusses voter challenges and voter turnout ahead of the November 5, 2024 election. Our guests explain how voter intimidation and voter suppression tactics continue to pose systemic barriers to Black vot...
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55:33
Real Talk: What Project 2025 Means for Your Life
In 2023, The Heritage Foundation, a think tank focused on promoting conservative public policies, published Project 2025 as a blueprint to consolidate power within the executive, or the office of the president, and weaken democratic structures....
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42:35
Brown at 70: Tracing the Legacy and History of Brown v. Board of Education
May 2024 marks 70 years since the U.S. Supreme Court issued its landmark ruling in Brown v. Board of Education declaring the “separate but equal” doctrin...
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Season 2
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Episode 2
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48:52
What is the state of felony disenfranchisement?
On the season three opener of Justice Above All, host and Thurgood Marshall Institute Senior Researcher, Dr. Sandhya Kajeepeta explores the state of felony disenfranchisement. Across the country, previously incarcerated individuals are...
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Season 3
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Episode 1
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41:50
Special Episode: What is Food Apartheid?
On this episode of Justice Above All, Thurgood Marshall Institute summer research fellows explored food apartheid. The fellows investigated the struggle to access quality food in the United States and on this special episode of the ...
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Season 2
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Episode 8
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32:14
How does racism undermine scientific innovation?
Elijah McCoy, Garret Morgan, George Washington Carver, and Madame CJ Walker are names you might recognize. They're Black inventors whose inventions modernized the world. But they may also be the only names you recognize when you think of Black ...
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Season 2
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Episode 7
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34:45
LDF's Return to the Supreme Court
In 2022, LDF made its return to the Supreme Court for the first time in seven years. Every year, LDF submits a few amicus briefs in various civil rights cases to the Court, but an LDF attorney had not delivered an oral argument before the Court...
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Season 2
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Episode 7
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47:33
How did school board elections become so intense?
On this episode, host Dr. Sandhya Kajeepeta, TMI Senior Researcher, chronicles how school board elections and meetings were once bastions of Black political power but have now become sites of charged debates, takeovers, and infiltrated by group...
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Season 2
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Episode 6
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52:01
What was Freedom House?
Freedom House was a radical idea that changed emergency response programs and birthed modern-day paramedicine. As we continue to reimagine public safety and confront the role of police in our society, Freedom House's legacy offers a bluep...
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Season 2
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Episode 5
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45:19
How does criminalizing abortion hurt Black communities?
In 2022, the Supreme Court reversed decades of precedent in the
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Season 2
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Episode 4
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34:09
How does affirmative action improve democracy?
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 t...
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Season 2
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Episode 3
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43:46
Grace Lee Boggs: A Model for Intersectionality?
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 ...
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Season 2
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Episode 2
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38:04
Can voting make us healthier?
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 dete...
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Season 2
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Episode 1
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36:07
Corporate Prey: How Corporate Landlords Destabilize Black Homeownership
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...
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34:37
Access Denied: How Race Shapes the Impacts of Long-Haul COVID
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....
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31:20
Beyond 911: Alternatives to Policing Behavioral Health Crises
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 ...
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26:31
NIMBYs: The Geography and Environment of Public Housing
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. Disproportionate...
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18:50
Aftershocks: Election Sabotage and January 6th
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, ...
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24:30