The Leadership Conference on Civil Rights is an umbrella organization of more than 200 smaller organizations that works to promote human rights throughout the U.S. Wade Henderson is president and CEO, and Nancy Zirkin is the group’s policy director.

An analysis of the statistics by Human Rights First shows that while the number of hate crimes remained steady from 2006 to 2007, the number of attacks targeting Hispanics and LGBT people rose. The FBI reports showed a 3.3 percent rise in anti-Hispanic hate crimes and a 5.5 percent rise in the number of hate crimes motivated […]

The FBI’s has an index of all hate crime statistics since 1995.

Black Youth Vote! (BYV!) is a national grassroots coalition of organizations and individuals committed to increasing political and civic engagement among black youth and young adults between the ages of 18-35. It is a part of the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation.

Ellis Cose, a former contributing editor to Newsweek, is author of Bone to Pick: Of Forgiveness, Reconciliation, Reparation and Revenge and End of Anger (2011).

Roy L. Brooks is the Warren Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of San Diego in California and the author of Atonement and Forgiveness: A New Model for Black Reparations.

Ruby Bridges Hall founded the Ruby Bridges Foundation in 1999 out of her experience in 1960 as the first black child to attend an all-white elementary school. The foundation, based in New Orleans, promotes tolerance, respect and acceptance of differences. She is also co-chair of A Campaign for Forgiveness Research.

Read a Nov. 13, 2008, story in The Forward, a Jewish weekly, “Black, Jewish Vote for Obama May Signal a Renewed Tie: But the Historic Allies Still Disagree on Many Issues.”

CNN has exit poll data: Click on the “Results” tab and go to “Exit Polls.” The second page has most of the breakdowns by religion.