Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division traveled to Los Angeles on April 11 and 12 to continue the division’s tour to engage with stakeholders in underserved communities and reaffirm the department’s commitment to protecting the civil rights of all Americans.
On Thursday, Assistant Attorney General Clarke visited Inglewood High School to speak at a forum hosted by the Western Justice Center (WJC) for junior and senior girls. WJC is part of a collaborative at Inglewood and Morningside High Schools and the Los Angeles County Dream Resource Centers that provide comprehensive services for students facing challenges of living in communities with high levels of violence and poverty. The students raised issues concerning the school to prison pipeline and bullying and harassment in schools. Assistant Attorney General Clarke provided an overview of civil rights and encouraged the students to continue to strive for academic excellence.
In the afternoon, Assistant Attorney General Clarke delivered the Allen Neiman and Alan Sieroty Lecture at the University of Southern California’s Gould School of Law (USC Gould) at the invitation of Dean Franita Tolson, the first Black dean and second woman to lead the law school. During the event, AAG Clarke discussed her trajectory from law school to a career in public service, and outlined division efforts to advance racial justice and equity, including securing the department’s largest redlining settlement with City National Bank to address redlining of Black and Latino communities in Los Angeles. AAG Clarke was joined by leaders of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California.
Assistant Attorney General Clarke traveled to Roosevelt High School, a predominantly Hispanic high school, in Boyle Heights, California, to speak to students in the Law and Public Service Magnet program. She discussed the division’s work to ensure all students are able to learn in a safe environment and have equal access to educational opportunities. She also spoke with the students about challenges they face in their communities, including access to clean air and clean water, and the need for safe and affordable housing.
In the evening, Assistant Attorney General Clarke met with local leaders and student advocates from the Islamic Center of Southern California, Muslim Public Affairs Council, Leo Baeck Temple and the All Saints Church Pasadena. During the meeting, she highlighted the division’s efforts to combat hate crimes and hate incidents and to hold law enforcement accountable when they violate federal civil rights. She underscored the importance of reporting hate crimes and hate incidents, outlined the department’s United Against Hate initiative and underscored the department’s steadfast commitment to investigating and prosecuting unlawful acts of hate in communities across the country.
On Friday, Assistant Attorney General Clarke visited Homeboy Industries, a transformative program founded by Father Gregory Boyle that has been improving the lives of former gang members in East Los Angeles and has evolved into the largest gang intervention, rehabilitation, and re-entry program in the world. She toured the facility with the program’s senior leadership and trainees and learned about the wraparound services offered to those looking to rebuild their lives, including counseling, employment and housing opportunities, tattoo removal, tutoring, record expungement and voter registration. She underscored the Civil Rights Division’s commitment to addressing barriers to reentry for people with criminal histories.
To conclude the trip, Assistant Attorney General Clarke spoke at a fireside chat at Ms. JD’s We Persist: A Symposium on Women in Law. During a moderated conversation with Executive Director Tara Murray of the Washington Bureau for the National Urban League, Assistant Attorney General Clarke highlighted the division’s work to enforce federal civil rights laws by eliminating barriers to voting, holding law enforcement accountable for misconduct, including the recent prosecution of six officers in Rankin County, Mississippi, for torturing two Black men, and fighting against algorithmic bias and discrimination in the wake of increased use of AI by landlords, employers, courts and more.
As part of this tour, Assistant Attorney General Clarke has traveled to underserved communities in Maryland, Georgia, Louisiana, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Arkansas and South Carolina to discuss the department’s efforts to protect civil rights.