The history of the justice department’s civil rights division is the product of lynchings, aged patients dying of neglect, and police officers murdering people in the street. It is the legacy of Matthew Shepard and Breonna Taylor and Emmett Till.
When local authorities would not investigate civil rights violations – or were violating rights themselves – communities have had to rely on federal investigators to fill the gap in justice. The question these communities will ask over the next four years is who the civil rights division under Donald Trump will protect.
