Southern Politics

July 29, 2014 - U.S. Senate candidate Michelle Nunn and gubernatorial hopeful Jason Carter -- daughter of Senator Sam and grandson of President Jimmy -- are Georgia Democrats taking the middle path on a road destined to veer left.

July 24, 2014 - State Senator Chris McDaniel's still-contested narrow loss to incumbent U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran in Mississippi's Republican runoff last month exposed a divide with the Republican Party possibly as wide as the divide that ultimately split the one-party Democratic South in the 1890s between the "Bourbon" establishment and the rebellious "Populists."

July 10, 2014 - The number of full-time reporters covering state politics for newspapers has declined significantly over the past decade, even as more critical policy decisions are falling to the states. Southern states have an especially dramatic imbalance between the number of reporters and the residents they serve.

July 2, 2014 - Today marks the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which ended Jim Crow segregation and led to a profound political realignment of the South that continues to shape the nation today.

June 27, 2014 - In June 1964, volunteers from across the U.S. descended on Mississippi to help tear down barriers keeping African Americans from the ballot box. Their work led to the passage of the Voting Rights Act, but today that law is under attack -- and the effort to restore it is getting little support so far from Mississippi's elected leaders.

June 20, 2014 - Income inequality in the U.S. began growing dramatically around the time unionization rates began plummeting. Can the current push to organize the South reverse the trend?

June 20, 2014 - As the nation marks the 50th anniversary of Freedom Summer, a new report makes the case that a similar push to register and mobilize African-American and other New Majority voters could reshape Southern politics far beyond the 2014 elections.