Southern Exposure was an award-winning print journal published by the Institute for Southern Studies, publisher of Facing South, from 1973 until 2011. Southern Exposure earned a national reputation for its writing on a broad range of political and cultural issues in the South, with a special emphasis on investigative journalism and oral history.

On the 50th anniversary of Southern Exposure’s birth, Facing South and the Institute will be publishing a full digital archive of the journal over the course of the year. The initial installment of the archives available in March 2023 includes issues from the magazine’s launch in 1973 through 1981.

Vol. 32 - 2004
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Magazine cover with photo of car under floodwaters; text reads "Acts of God? How Natural are Natural Disasters?"

Acts of God

  • Front Porch: Letter from the Publisher

    2

  • Southern News Roundup

    4

  • Abu Ghraib in Virginia

    The abuse of Iraqi inmates follows a pattern established in Southern prisons. By Laura LaFay

    11

  • Tort Reform, Lone Star Style

    How Gov. Bush and the business lobby drastically curtailed the rights of Texans to their day in court—and how President Bush would like to extend these "reforms" to the rest of the country. By Stephanie Mencimer

    14

  • Fellow Travellers

    Immigrant workers retrace the freedom reides of 1961 as they struggle for better conditions, civil rights. By Jake Rollow, with photos by Diana Molina

    25

  • Fear and Flooding in North Carolina

    A hurricane-harried African American town lives with the specter of future disaster. By Sue Sturgis

    34

  • Portraits of Disaster

    Scenes from the hurricane-ravaged coast of North Carolina. photos by Hart Matthews

    42

  • Deluge without End

    Four years of unprecedented rainfall left West Virginia devastated. Now residents, activists, and regulators struggle to reform the logging and mining industries. By Penny Loeb

    50

  • Last Call for Judgment Day

    An earthquake in South Carolina? It happened in 1886, devastating Charleston and shaking the faith of city boosters in the economic promise of the New South. By Ted Steinberg

    68

  • Bookshelf

    Cass Irvin's Home Bound, reviewed by Harriet McBryde Johnson

    77
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