Social justice

A federal jury in Baltimore returned a $250,000 verdict against an off-duty Baltimore Police Department officer who in 2017 pulled a gun on two 16-year-old boys as they waited for transportation to an after-school program in their Columbia neighborhood.

As Baltimore recovers from the Key Bridge collapse, America must not forget that the city has been an essential part of its history and progress, says Eric S. Singer, a historian and an authority on the structural, political and cultural history of the city.

Baltimore has become the latest target of a national far-right campaign spreading thinly veiled racism after a catastrophic event.

The loss of workers in the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse serves as a reminder of the essential role immigrant workers play in our community and of our obligation to protect them, say the leaders of immigrant rights groups United We Dream and CASA.

Removal of the Robert E. Lee statue from the Antietam Battlefield is appropriate when the totality of his life is considered, a writer who examines Civil War History says.

Tax debt and other property-related bills can block home title transfers that would be beneficial to low-income Marylanders, says an attorney who works to resolve these “tangled titles.”

Legislation would put renters at risk by removing safeguards that protect non-owner-occupied properties from city tax sale foreclosures for unpaid water debt, an economic justice advocate and a public water advocate say.

Identified only by their initials, 11 women, one man, and one person who identified as non-binary, filed a lawsuit Tuesday against the state of Maryland and three of its agencies, claiming they were sexually abused as children while residents at the Good Shepherd Services treatment center before the facility was closed in 2017.

NBC News Correspondent Antonia Hylton speaks with journalist and broadcaster Gwendolyn Glenn about Hylton’s book, "Madness: Race and Insanity in a Jim Crow Asylum," which explores the history of Maryland’s Crownsville Hospital.

Maryland must be one of the places that will protect artistic expression, including rap music lyrics, from being used by prosecutors in criminal cases, say a state lawmaker and an author who has written about those prosecution methods.

Baltimore’s young people older than 16 often find a lack of educational and other resources aimed at helping them transition to adulthood, Julia Baez, the CEO of Baltimore’s Promise, says.

Efforts in Maryland to roll back juvenile justice reform are politically motivated and won't reduce crime, two retired federal judges say.

Rather than putting high-rise buildings at the center of Inner Harbor redevelopment, Baltimore should use the area to feature a town square everyone in the city could enjoy, a longtime city resident says.

The life of abolitionist, clergyman and historian James W.C. Pennington, the first Black person to study at Yale, began in enslavement in Maryland.

National heritage areas in Maryland reflect the significant impact the history and culture of Black Marylanders has had on the state and the nation, executive directors of two of those national heritage areas say.

The ENOUGH Act would enable community-led efforts on programs that combat poverty, such as improving “cradle to career” education and connecting people with jobs.

Maryland must reject legislation that would allow parents, instead of lawyers, to act as legal advocates for interrogated children, three psychology professors say.

The 25-year-old fought back and managed to survive. Five months later, she’s begun the process of working every day — for the rest of her life — to not let the attack define her.

Harriet Tubman should be honored by putting her image on the $20 bill because she embodied America’s highest principles and aspirations, says Linda Harris, director of the Harriet Tubman Museum and Education Center.

Lefty Driesell changed the direction of college basketball at the University of Maryland, in the South and elsewhere, and his recruitment of Black players was a big part of that, author and longtime sports journalist David Steele says.