(The Root) — The history of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division is a long one, and it’s inextricably linked to the suffering of African Americans.Founded in 1957 as part of the Civil Rights Act, the division has now worked for more than five decades to ferret out and prosecute discrimination at all levels of American society. And while the body busies itself with everything from human-trafficking crimes to bias against the disabled, its organizational trademark is its endless pursuit of crimes against people of color. Just over 50 years after its founding, the Civil Rights Division came under the purview of the country’s first black president and attorney general. And in the ensuing months, it has worked tirelessly to prosecute the ongoing crimes that necessitated its creation so long ago.
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