Politics

June 17, 2021 - This Juneteenth, Black Voters Matter will launch a bus tour through Southern states marking the 60th anniversary of the original Freedom Rides that successfully challenged segregation. The tour will promote the For the People Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Act and drive home the importance of confronting voter suppression.  

June 17, 2021 - The Communities Not Prisons coalition has stalled Alabama's plan to work with private prison companies to expand the state prison system, which the U.S. Justice Department has charged with unconstitutional human rights abuses. The victory was won by organizing across geographic, race, and class lines — and by targeting the banks involved.

June 16, 2021 - Home care workers, most of whom are women of color, are among the most underpaid workers in the U.S., and the situation is especially dire in the low-wage South. In North Carolina, care workers recently rallied to call on federal lawmakers to support President Biden's American Jobs Plan, which would increase their pay and on-the-job protections.

June 15, 2021 - Federal appellate courts in the Deep South are disproportionately white compared to the region's population, but President Joe Biden has pledged to diversify the courts with his nominations. Efforts to expand the region's mostly white state appellate courts could also lead to more diversity on the bench.

June 10, 2021 - As in the South of the 19th century, we have a massive group among us willing to throw democracy away in order to assure their ascendancy. With a dominant political party committed to autocracy, we're treading new ground — at least new ground in modern times.

June 8, 2021 - A new collaborative report from leading state and national experts highlights bipartisan policy proposals for North Carolina to improve voting, combat corruption, and promote good government.  

June 4, 2021 - Some of the 19 young people arrested in Tallahassee last year while protesting deadly police violence are still facing charges that carry prison time. But their push for justice continues, with the goal of one day winning a community task force that holds officers accountable.

June 3, 2021 - Black farmers will start receiving their first payments this month under the Emergency Relief for Farmers of Color Act. Sponsored by Sen. Raphael Warnock of Georgia, it was part of the latest COVID-19 stimulus and has been called the most significant legislation for Black farmers since the Civil Rights Act of 1964. But the Texas agriculture commissioner and former Trump adviser Stephen Miller are among those involved in lawsuits to halt the payments, arguing they're unfair to whites.

June 1, 2021 - It was 32 years ago that Southern Exposure — the print forerunner to Facing South — set out to document conditions in the region's fast-growing poultry industry. Many of the problems it reported on continue today. And as our recent reporting has shown, the pandemic created new challenges for the industry's changing workforce while also presenting opportunities for organizing in an industry that's long resisted unionization.

May 27, 2021 - Gov. Brian Kemp recently signed into law a bill that would bar Georgia's many licensing boards from denying credentials to people on probation or parole for many crimes. That's an important step toward fair chance licensing, says DJ Sims, a reentry organizer in Georgia — but additional reforms are needed to ensure that people who've served their time are able to make a living.