duke university

October 27, 2025 - At a recent Institute forum, urbanist and historian Prof. Davarian Baldwin looked at the role of universities in their communities, and why institutions like Duke University should do more to invest in workers and residents.

September 24, 2025 - A campaign launched this spring is calling on Duke University to raise wages and invest in the city of Durham. Over its history, the elite Southern school has earned a reputation for its hostility to worker activism.

August 27, 2025 - At a critical moment for higher education, a leading urban scholar argues universities need to be doing more — not less — to support and invest in the communities where they are based.

November 30, 2022 - A new book co-edited by economist William "Sandy" Darity Jr. and his colleagues at Duke University explores how the coronavirus pandemic worsened racial inequality. Facing South recently spoke with Darity, a leading scholar of reparations for slavery, about policies to address the racial wealth gap.

September 28, 2022 - The famed civil rights leader who coined the phrase "environmental racism" in a North Carolina jail recently delivered the Robert R. Wilson Distinguished Lecture at Duke University Chapel in Durham. Titled "Environmental Justice: Past, Present, and Future" and shared here, his talk commemorated the 40th anniversary of protests over toxic waste dumping in a rural Black community that sparked the environmental justice movement.

July 26, 2018 - Vernon Haltom of West Virginia's Coal River Mountain Watch was among those who testified about coal's future before a congressional subcommittee this week. The testimony of Haltom — whose group is working to end mountaintop removal mining in Appalachia — details what boosting coal means for the communities where it's extracted.

November 11, 2016 - Because of district lines drawn by Republicans, Democrats continue to be underrepresented in relation to their votes in Southern states' congressional delegations.