March 11, 2022 -
Thousands of people gathered recently in Alabama for the 57th anniversary of the historic Selma to Montgomery March for voting rights, which was met with police violence as peaceful demonstrators tried to cross a bridge named for a Klan leader. This year's event took place as state legislatures across the South are passing bills to limit voting and protesting.
March 11, 2022 -
A new report from the Alabama-based Southern Poverty Law Center finds that the number of U.S. hate groups fell for the third year in a row — but says that's not necessarily good news, as such views are now moving from the fringe into the mainstream. It also found that hate groups are becoming more concentrated in the Southern states.
March 9, 2022 -
Organizers are frustrated by Biden giving short shrift to voting rights in his first State of the Union address. In response, they're stepping up efforts to secure federal voting protections as state legislatures across the South continue to pass suppressive voting laws.
March 9, 2022 -
Mississippi civil rights organizer Fannie Lou Hamer passed away 45 years ago this month. A recent book and documentary examine her life and work amid a pitched national debate over how to teach and think about U.S. racial history.
March 7, 2022 -
As trans youth face a crisis of harassment, violence, and trauma, Republican politicians up for reelection in Texas and other states are launching misleading attacks on them and their families in a blatant attempt to stir up the party's base and win votes. Legal and human rights advocates and the Biden administration are taking steps to protect the lives of these vulnerable young Americans as others press for boycotts.
March 3, 2022 -
While reporting on the human rights crisis in Alabama's prisons, journalist Beth Shelburne began corresponding with incarcerated men in the state about their fight to read. She recounts their ongoing battles against censorship inside an irrational system where books and magazines are treated like dangerous contraband.
February 25, 2022 -
Inspired by her own experience with postpartum depression, Louisiana nurse practitioner and doula Nikki Greenaway launched an innovative practice to care for vulnerable new mothers. She talks with Facing South about how her model of community care can help address the maternal mortality crisis, which is especially dire among young Black women living in Louisiana and other Southern states.