News & Commentary

Late Tuesday night, eight people were killed in a shooting rampage at three spas in the Atlanta area. Six of the victims were Asian women. This tragedy comes in the midst of a rapid rise in anti-Asian violent attacks since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the majority of which have targeted women.

A Pocahontas County High School teacher is under fire from some members of the community for introducing the books "The Hate U Give" and "This Book is Anti-Racist: 20 Lessons to Wake up, Take Action, and Do the Work" in an honors English class. The Pocahontas County Board of Education addressed the matter last night. Jennifer Williams of Families Leading Change and Our Future West Virginia presented a letter signed by more than 20 organizations including ACLU-WV in support of the teacher and her decision to introduce students to these books.

ACLU-WV delivered the following letter to members of the West Virginia House of Delegates today regarding House Bill 2013, which would funnel public funding to private schools that discriminate:Delegate, 

In the wake of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention calling the HIV outbreak in the Kanawha Valley “the most concerning in the nation,” the American Civil Liberties Union of West Virginia (ACLU-WV) has joined with other organizations to demand Charleston city leaders start listening to science and stop leading with fear.

One hundred years ago a socialite and organizer by the name of Roger Baldwin made the journey from New York City to Logan, West Virginia. He came, in the aftermath of the Battle of Blair Mountain, to deliver a speech expressing his support for the miners’ First Amendment freedom of association – their right to organize a union.

West Virginia has some of the nation’s deadliest jails, with alarmingly high rates of suicide, homicide, and drug overdose deaths, according to a new report compiled by the American Civil Liberties Union of West Virginia (ACLU-WV) using data from both the Reuters news agency and the state Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation. 

The American Civil Liberties Union of West Virginia urges members of West Virginia’s Congressional delegation to oppose short-sighted attempts to expand harmful domestic terrorism laws in the wake of the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

The COVID-19 pandemic should not be used to exclude constituents from providing input on proposed legislation. That’s why the American Civil Liberties Union of West Virginia (ACLU-WV) has joined with more than 40 other organizations, representing tens of thousands of West Virginians, to call on the state Legislature to hold an open session.

The American Civil Liberties Union of West Virginia (ACLU-WV) seeks a communications intern for late winter/early spring. The intern will work remotely with the ACLU-WV Communications Director to design our annual magazine and help manage our website news section. Other projects may include contributing to our digital storytelling surrounding immigrants’ rights, and a podcast centering the voices of formerly incarcerated people.