racial disparities

April 10, 2020 - The Southeast Crescent Regional Commission was created in 2008 to provide economic development assistance to Black Belt states but has never received its full appropriation from Congress — even while its counterpart covering whiter, richer Northern states has. With Black Belt communities being ravaged by the pandemic, it's past time for action.

February 13, 2020 - Sharpe recently won his release from a North Carolina prison after serving 25 years for a murder he did not commit. He knows his story is not an anomaly — and he is using it to fight for systemic change. 

October 10, 2019 - Reed, who is African-American, was convicted in 1998 of raping and murdering a white woman based on DNA evidence — but he says they were having a secret affair, which the woman's cousin confirms. The case fits a pattern of questionable convictions of Black men for crimes against whites in Texas.

September 12, 2019 - The more intense hurricanes now developing due to human-driven global warming are causing widespread pain throughout the U.S. South. But current policy choices mean some communities suffer more than others — and that environmental injustice will be among the topics addressed during this month's climate strike and U.N. climate summit.

July 31, 2019 - A recent study found that judges in North Carolina and two other states hand down longer sentences during their re-election campaigns. It also confirmed that judges in some states treat black defendants more harshly, with the disparity most pronounced in Alabama. 

July 19, 2019 - The Emmy-nominated docudrama "When They See Us" sparked a national conversation about wrongful convictions and how they disproportionately steal the freedom of Black and Brown people. However, most exonerations don't come about by chance meetings but by the hard work of nongovernmental innocence organizations and a growing number of conviction integrity units in prosecutors' offices.  

June 4, 2019 - While the U.S. has the highest maternal mortality rate among the developed nations, Southern states have the highest rates in the U.S. — and black women are at dramatically higher risk of complications than white women. A congresswoman from North Carolina is taking action to tackle the problem.