A 1988 issue of Southern Exposure magazine, the print forerunner to Facing South, reprinted a visionary address by North Carolina-based organizer Mab Segrest calling for an intersectional Southern gay and lesbian liberation movement. We're republishing it in honor of Pride Month.
Across the rural South's Black Belt, the lack of adequate sewage and water infrastructure has created serious public health problems. We spoke with Catherine Coleman Flowers, a longtime environmental justice activist in rural Alabama and the recent recipient of a MacArthur Foundation "genius" grant, about her work to draw attention to the region's intersecting crises and how grassroots activism can impact federal policy.
More Black women are running for Congress than ever before, including in several key races across the South. Many of these women are already trailblazers, and now they're building new paths into politics.
In 1988, Southern Exposure, the print forerunner of Facing South, published a speech by Segrest, a North Carolina anti-racist organizer and lesbian activist, for an issue on lesbians and gays in the South. Segrest went on to write several books, including "Memoir of a Race Traitor," and to teach college in Connecticut. Back in North Carolina again, Segrest recently talked with Facing South about the urgency of broad-based organizing in this historic moment.
This Sexual Assault Awareness Month, #MeToo movement founder Tarana Burke launched a tour of historically black colleges to refocus the conversation around sexual assault to be more inclusive of Black women.
For centuries, Black women battled racism and misogyny as they fought for access to the ballot. Having made enormous political strides in recent decades, they are poised to smash through a key barrier this year — and to do so in a Southern state.
Cassandra Welchlin with the Mississippi Low Income Childcare Initiative and the Mississippi Women's Economic Security Initiative talks about building power for vulnerable people in a hostile environment — and drawing hope from history and her children's future.
Two years ago this week Sandra Bland was found dead inside a Texas jail cell. Last month Texas passed a law named in her honor, but it focuses on mental health issues in jails and ignores the other factors that contributed to her suicide.
