Civil Rights
Movements, leaders, victories and the continuing fight for equality.
q2K BHP
Black History Portal
THE BHP WIRE —
HIDDEN TRUTHS
What's New!
Explore the people, places, events, achievements, struggles and stories that shaped our journey.
Movements, leaders, victories and the continuing fight for equality.
Innovation, patents, science, technology and world-changing contributions.
Pioneers, champions, Negro Leagues, records, activism and excellence.
Meet the people whose lives, choices and achievements shaped the journey.
Black towns, communities, institutions and places where history happened.
Moments that changed communities, movements, institutions and the nation.
In 1968 Shirley Chisholm became the first Black woman elected to the United States Congress. In 1972 she launched a campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination, breaking another political barrier.
MORE →Reflects the personal views, recollections, and perspective of the author, Mike Davis.
This is a personal recollection on the Move fire on May 13, 1985
| Part of a series on |
| Progressivism |
|---|
 |
The Fair Immigration Reform Movement (FIRM)[1] is a grassroots movement that supports comprehensive immigration reform and the civil rights of immigrants in the United States. It was started in 2004 by the Community Change, formerly The Center for Community Change. FIRM includes a coalition of 30 immigration rights movement organizations across the United States.[2][failed verification] Its goals are to help grassroots organizations form a collective voice around comprehensive immigration reform and to address issues facing immigrants.[3]
Since its inception in 2004, FIRM has served as a hub of "comprehensive immigration reform and the civil rights of immigration" in the United States. The movement has mobilized hundreds of immigrant and non-immigrant organizations to collectively call for the improvement of the lives of marginalized communities of color, gender, race, and ethnicity.[4]
Source: Wikipedia. Article content is retrieved live through the MediaWiki API.
The Fair Immigration Reform Movement (FIRM) is a grassroots movement that supports comprehensive immigration reform and the civil rights of immigrants in the United States. It was started in 2004 by the Community Change, formerly The Center for Community Change. FIRM includes a coalition of 30 immigration rights movement organizations across the United States. Its goals are to help grassroots organizations form a collective voice around comprehensive immigration reform and to address issues facing immigrants. Since its inception in 2004, FIRM has served as a hub of "comprehensive immigration reform and the civil rights of immigration" in the United States. The movement has mobilized hundreds of immigrant and non-immigrant organizations to collectively call for the improvement of the lives of marginalized communities of color, gender, race, and ethnicity.
Immigration has been a major source of population growth and cultural change in the United States throughout much of its history. As of January 2025, the United States has the largest immigrant population in the world in absolute terms, with 53.3 million foreign-born residents, representing 15.8% of the total U.S. population—both record highs. While the United States represented about 4% of the total global population in 2024, 17% of all international migrants resided in the United States. In March 2025, the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) estimated that approximately 18.6 million illegal immigrants resided in the United States. In 2024, immigrants and their U.S.-born children number more than 93 million people, or 28% of the total U.S. population. According to the 2016 Yearbook of Immigration Statistics, the United States admitted a total of 1.18 million legal immigrants (618k new arrivals, 565k status adjustments) in 2016. Of these, 48% were the immediate relatives of United States citizens, 20% were family-sponsored, 13% were refugees or asylum seekers, 12% were employment-based preferences, 4.2% were part of the Diversity Immigrant Visa program, 1.4% were victims of a crime (U1) or their family members were (U2 to U5), and 1.0% who were granted the Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) for Iraqis and Afghans employed by the United States Government. The remaining 0.4% included small numbers from several other categories, including 0.2% who were granted suspension of deportation as an immediate relative of a citizen (Z13); persons admitted under the Nicaraguan and Central American Relief Act; children born after the issuance of a parent's visa; and certain parolees from the former Soviet Union, Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam who were denied refugee status. Between 1921 and 1965 policies such as the National Origins Formula limited immigration and naturalization opportunities for people from areas outside Northwestern Europe. Exclusion laws enacted as early as the 1880s generally prohibited or severely restricted immigration from Asia, and quota laws enacted in the 1920s curtailed Southern and Eastern European immigration. The civil rights movement led to the replacement of these ethnic quotas with per-country limits for family-sponsored and employment-based preference visas. Between 1970 and 2007, the number of first-generation immigrants living in the United States quadrupled from 9.6 million to 38.1 million residents. Census estimates show 45.3 million foreign born residents in the United States as of March 2018 and 45.4 million in September 2021, the lowest three-year increase in decades. In 2017, out of the U.S. foreign-born population, some 45% (20.7 million) were naturalized citizens, 27% (12.3 million) were lawful permanent residents, 6% (2.2 million) were temporary lawful residents, and 23% (10.5 million) were unauthorized unlawful residents. The United States led the world in refugee resettlement for decades, admitting more refugees than the rest of the world combined. Causes of migration include poverty, crime, societal collapse and environmental degradation. Some research suggests that immigration is beneficial, overall, to the United States' economy. Furthermore, the evidence suggests that on average, immigration has positive economic effects on the existing native population, but there is data to suggest that low-skilled immigration adversely affects low-skilled natives. Studies also show that immigrants have lower crime rates than natives in the United States. The economic, social, and political aspects of immigration have caused controversy regarding such issues as maintaining ethnic homogeneity, workers for employers versus jobs for non-immigrants, settlement patterns, impact on upward social mobility, crime, and voting behavior.
The Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) is an American anti-immigration think tank. It favors far lower immigration numbers and produces analyses to further those views. The CIS was founded by historian Otis L. Graham alongside eugenicist and white nationalist John Tanton in 1985 as a spin-off of the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR). It is one of a number of anti-immigration organizations founded by Tanton, along with FAIR and NumbersUSA. CIS has been involved in the creation of Project 2025. Reports published by CIS have been disputed by scholars on immigration, fact-checkers and news outlets, and immigration-research organizations. The organization had significant influence within the Trump administration, which cited the group's work to defend its immigration policies. The Southern Poverty Law Center designated CIS as a hate group with ties to the American nativist movement.
NumbersUSA is an anti-immigration advocacy group that seeks to reduce both legal and illegal immigration to the United States. NumbersUSA was founded by Roy Beck in 1996, with assistance from the anti-immigration movement figure John Tanton. NumbersUSA, along with the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) and the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), two other groups that Tanton founded, formed "the bulk of the anti-immigration movement" in the United States as of 2018, according to The Detroit News.
Before the 1921 destruction of Tulsa’s Greenwood District, Black residents had created a remarkable center of business and community life. The district included stores, professional offices, entertainment venues and homes owned by Black citizens. Understanding Greenwood means learning what was built—not only what was burned.
MORE →Shirley Chisholm, elected in 1968.
