Benjamin Barber

Democracy Program Coordinator

Benjamin Barber is the democracy program coordinator at the Institute for Southern Studies, a contributing writer for Facing South, and a graduate of the School of Social Policy & Practice at the University of Pennsylvania. He also holds a bachelor's degree in history from Barton College in Wilson, North Carolina. Benjamin previously interned with the Equal Justice Initiative in Alabama and with Facing South, and he served as the historian for the North Carolina NAACP Youth and College Division. His research focuses on voting rights, democracy, and Southern history.

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Articles by Benjamin Barber

Human Rights

Ahmaud Arbery's killing spurs action on Southern states' lack of hate crime laws

By Benjamin Barber

May 21, 2020 - Previous efforts to pass a hate crimes law in Georgia have failed, but Ahmaud Arbery's killing has renewed the urgency to move legislation there. South Carolina is also once again considering putting a hate crime law on its books.

Politics

Mobilizing young voters during the COVID-19 pandemic

By Benjamin Barber

May 7, 2020 - Already dealing with longstanding barriers to the ballot, voter organizations will be turning out the youth vote this year amid an unprecedented public health crisis — and they are transitioning to a virtual format for their mobilization efforts.

The GOP fight against voting by mail

By Benjamin Barber

April 21, 2020 - There's a growing push for voting by mail amid the COVID-19 pandemic, but Republicans are fighting it — the latest move in the party's decades-long campaign to limit voting.

Protecting the South's homeless population from COVID-19

By Benjamin Barber

April 7, 2020 - Southern states are among those with the nation's highest rates of homelessness. Some places in the region are taking targeted action to protect the unhoused, who are particularly vulnerable to the novel coronavirus.

Safeguarding elections amid a pandemic

By Benjamin Barber

March 27, 2020 - With daily life disrupted by the novel coronavirus outbreak, voting rights advocates are calling for action to ensure that the 2020 elections are free, fair, accessible, and secure. Here are the steps they say we need to take to protect both public health and democracy.

Students head to vote in the Sandhills. (Photo via the Democracy NC Twitter page.)

Democratic primaries show the hard-earned power of the South's black voters

By Benjamin Barber

March 20, 2020 - When the Democratic primaries shifted from overwhelmingly white states in the Midwest and New England to Southern states with large African-American populations, so did the outcomes. But African-American voters in the South are not a monolith, and there's a significant divide between older and younger black voters.

As young voter participation has grown, so have Southern states' efforts to curb it

By Benjamin Barber

February 28, 2020 - With experts predicting record turnout of young voters this year, states across the country — and especially in the South — continue to put up roadblocks to participation.