After the 2020 legislative session was largely derailed by COVID-19, and following the unprecedented summer protests in the wake of the killings of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd, Louisiana’s 2021 legislative session sought to deliver on many deferred promises.
We can never bring back the lives lost to this crisis or restore the precious time it has taken, but lawmakers do have the power to prevent these tragedies in the future and restore the promise of “innocent until proven guilty.” They must use it.
Right now if you are arrested in Louisiana, you can sit in jail for months before a prosecutor even looks at evidence, speaks to witnesses, or reviews police reports.
During Black History Month the ACLU of Louisiana is celebrating and lifting up the contributions and resilience of the Black Louisianans of every generation who have demanded justice, confronted white supremacy, and fought to create a more perfect union for everyone
When people around the world rose and demanded racial justice in 2020, they stood on the shoulders of generations of activists and organizers who had marched, fought, and died for the cause of Black lives.