Were Don Imus comments referring to the African American women on Rutgers University's basketball team as nappy headed hoes a violation of section 1983 of the Civil Rights Act?

Answer 1

Certainly not. While he shows poor taste and is terribly rude, Imus is a private citizen and has all the free speech protections that belong to each US citizen. (A civil suit on slander charges was also eventually dropped.) Generally speaking, civil rights protections only apply to criminal acts or actions by a government. These have been expanded to sometimes include companies or groups that receive funding from a government source.