For more than a quarter of a century the ERC has been dedicated to advancing civil rights. Please join the ERC in protecting civil rights for the future.

Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.
—Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Latest News

Street Sense: ERC Promotes Equal Housing Rights (2/2/10)
This month, Washington DC’s Equal Rights Center (ERC) launched a Fair Housing “Know Your Rights” Campaign to educate survivors of domestic violence about their fair housing rights.

The Campaign aims to be a factor in eliminating homelessness nationwide. The ERC’s “Housing Discrimination against Survivors of Domestic Violence in the District of Columbia” 2008 report states that approximately half of the District’s 16,000 homeless are women and children. It cites a direct correlation between domestic violence housing discrimination and homelessness. While the report states that the District currently provides 48 safe beds in confidential locations for women and children who are domestic violence victims, the ERC maintains that this isn’t enough.

Associated Press: Deaf inmates sue Va. corrections department (2/2/10)
A lawsuit filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Alexandria alleges state officials are violating the Americans with Disabilities Act by limiting access to sign language interpreters.

It also alleges the inmates don't have adequate access to communication devices and are not given visual notification of events and safety announcements.

NYT: Using Humor in a Campaign Supporting Disabled People (2/1/10)
"Think beyond the label" is a new $4 million campaign, encouraging businesses to employ people with disabilities. The campaign takes a light-hearted approach, offering humorous examples of people with “differences” already employed.

For instance, in a television commercial, a worker in a wheelchair points out her colleagues who “you could label as ‘different.’ ” Among them are a woman dressed in a nightmare wardrobe of clashing patterns, who is “fashion deficient”; a klutzy young man at the copier, who is “copy incapable”; and a shouting man who suffers from “volume control syndrome.”

Equal Rights Center News Archive