Demographics

July 15, 2020 - Breonna Taylor's is just the latest police killing the #SayHerName campaign has helped to bring to the public's attention. Ongoing and too often ignored police violence against Black women and girls shows why this intersectional campaign is so necessary. 

June 1, 2020 - Several chronic health conditions that disproportionately affect residents of Southern states are now considered potential risk factors for severe illness from COVID-19. As the country moves toward reopening, public health experts fear the pandemic could wreak havoc on vulnerable communities across the South.

May 19, 2020 - A new analysis by Facing South finds that counties with prisons and meatpacking plants are particularly vulnerable to intense COVID-19 outbreaks. So are the region's majority-black counties.

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.

April 9, 2020 - The decennial U.S. population count is underway and will be used for everything from drawing new congressional districts to deciding where to allocate federal resources — including any potential coronavirus vaccine. But the pandemic is complicating the process and raising concerns about potential undercounts, which would inflict more pain on suffering communities.

April 7, 2020 - Southern states are among those with the nation's highest rates of homelessness. Some places in the region are taking targeted action to protect the unhoused, who are particularly vulnerable to the novel coronavirus.