A civil right is an enforceable right or privilege, which if interfered with by another gives rise to an action for injury. Examples of civil rights are freedom of speech, press, and assembly; the right to vote; freedom from involuntary servitude; and the right to equality in public places. Discrimination occurs when the civil rights of an individual are denied or interfered with because of their membership in a particular group or class. Statutes have been enacted to prevent discrimination based on race, sex, religion, age, previous condition of servitude, physical limitation, national origin, and in some instances sexual preference. Civil rights attorneys handle cases involving the rights of individuals to be free from unequal treatment (or discrimination) based on legally-protected characteristics such as race, gender, disability, national origin, age, sexual orientation, and religion. Civil rights cases can arise in a number of settings -- including employment, housing, lending, and education.
Midlothian is an unincorporated community in Chesterfield County, Virginia, United States. Founded over 300 years ago as a coal mining village, it is now an outlying suburban community located well beyond the city limits in the Southside area of Richmond in the Richmond-Petersburg region. It was named for the early 18th century coal mining enterprises of the Wooldridge brothers who came from mining villages in East Lothian and West Lothian near Edinburgh, Scotland. In a compromise, the new venture was called Mid-Lothian. It produced the first commercially mined coal in the Virginia Colony and in what became the United States. By 1700, several mines were in development by French Huguenots and others. Shipment of coal began in the 1730s. Midlothian-area coal heated the U.S. White House for President Thomas Jefferson. Related transportation needs and innovations resulted in construction of an early toll road, the Manchester Turnpike in 1807 and the Chesterfield Railroad, the state's first in 1831, each to travel the 13 miles to the port of Manchester, just below the fall line of the James River. (Manchester, the original county seat of Chesterfield County, became an independent city and merged with Richmond in 1910). Near the mines, Coalfield Station was built in the early 1850s on the Richmond and Danville Railroad. The small village of shops, churches, and schools established nearby came to be called Midlothian. In the 1920s, Midlothian's commercial village area along the Old Buckingham Road was sited on the new east-west U.S. Route 60. A few decades later, communities grew up near Midlothian, including the large Salisbury community, named for the colonial-era home of Thomas Mann Randolph and later Virginia Governor Patrick Henry (1784-1786), and the massive Brandermill planned development sited on Swift Creek Reservoir. In the 21st century, widespread Midlothian extends many miles beyond the former village area.. It is located along the semi-circumferential limited access State Route 288 which links Interstate 64 with the State Route 76 toll road and Interstate 95 in the Richmond area's southwestern quadrant. Midlothian was ranked #37 in CNNMoney's list of "The Best Places to Live" in 2005 and #99 in 2008. Recognized by the U.S. Census Bureau as a census-designated place (CDP), the community had a total population of 35,427 as of the 2000 census. There are several wealthy individuals in Midlothian, so it is considered a hotbed by Virginia's investment firms. With the addition of the multi-million dollar Bon Secours Hospital, St. Francis, Midlothian now has a major hospital within five minutes of Midlothian's highest concentration of residents, the planned community of Brandermill.