state legislatures
December 1, 2017 -
Amid intensifying wealth inequality and extreme poverty, Bishop William Barber of North Carolina's Moral Movement and other clergy and organizers will kick off a nationwide effort on Dec. 4 to carry on the work of the first Poor People's Campaign, launched on the same date 50 years earlier by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
November 17, 2017 -
Democrats, liberal-leaning independents and a growing number of progressives lead two-thirds of the South's 30 largest cities, but their agenda is under attack from the region's conservative legislatures through preemption and other efforts to limit local control.
September 4, 2017 -
As wages stagnate nationally, more Southern states than ever before are embracing anti-union laws and laws to prevent local governments from raising pay and requiring family sick leave.
July 14, 2017 -
A ballot initiative campaign in Florida and a lawsuit against Louisiana seek to restore voting rights to people convicted of felonies after they're released from prison. The efforts are parts of a broader movement to overturn felony disenfranchisement laws rooted in white-supremacist politics.
June 13, 2017 -
Measures for Justice, a nonprofit that gauges the performance of criminal justice systems at the county level, has released data for six states including Florida and North Carolina. The effort shows how criminal justice is being carried out locally and where change is needed.
March 24, 2017 -
Though death sentences and executions have decreased nationally in recent years, the South continues to execute people at a disproportionate rate — but the movement to end the death penalty is picking up momentum there.
July 29, 2016 -
This week 69 state lawmakers from the Carolinas and Georgia, both Democrats and Republicans, sent a letter asking the Obama administration to block seismic testing permits for oil and gas deposits off the East Coast. They joined hundreds of other local communities, elected officials, business groups and scientists opposed to offshore exploration and drilling.