Making History: A Southern Exposure Timeline

Reading through the pages of Southern Exposure is to take a step back into the life and times of a changing region. Southern Exposure was frequently the first to report on stories that later took on a regional and national significance — from the rise of Southerners in politics, to the burgeoning poultry and hog industries, to the prevalence of “environmental racism” in the siting of toxic waste dumps. Other times, the magazine gave a uniquely critical and Southern spin to events already shaking our country and world. Whether as a harbinger or a Southern sign of the times, there’s little doubt that Southern Exposure, in ways big and small, made history. The following timeline — while incomplete — offers a sense of the journal’s pathbreaking writing.

 

War-Torn South

Fall 1973: With war raging in Vietnam, Southern Exposure launches with “The Military and the South.” Inaugural issue documents the South’s disproportionate reliance on military dollars — and the disproportionate share of Southern men going to battle.

 

Power Politics

Winter 1973: The energy crisis spurs an investigation of utility companies, including the first “spider charts,” diagramming the web of incestuous relationships between corporate boardrooms. Laid the groundwork for the Georgia Power Project, and utility reform organizing. . .

 

Southern Strategies

Winter 1973: In the wake of Watergate, issue #2 also features “The Sunshine Syndicate Behind Watergate,” which anticipates the dominance of Southerners in politics that continues today.

 

In Their Own Words

Spring 1974: A pioneering work of oral history, “No More Moanin’” relates the unbroken history of Southern struggle for social change through the activists’ first-person testimony.

 

Lost Land

Fall 1974: “Our Promised Land” contrasts the South’s wealth of natural resources with the region’s rampant poverty; also includes a report on the loss of land among African-American farmers — an issue eventually investigated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture in the mid-1990s.

 

Media Exposure

Spring 1975: The magazine offers an early warning of the growing concentration of newspapers and other press outlets into a handful of media conglomerates. An update in 1997 found 85% of Southern papers owned by corporate chains.

 

Looms and Labor Power

Spring 1976: The Institute plays a pivotal role in helping textile workers battle the stubborn J.P. Stevens Co. and win recognition for their union. Southern Exposure begins a series of stories that uncover the mill empires and history of labor resistance.

 

Our Mother’s Gardens

Winter 1976: As the women’s movement gains steam, writers including Alice Walker and Lee Smith write about Southern women across generations.

 

Long Journey Home

Spring 1978: Documenting ways of life that were rapidly being destroyed, the book-length “Folklife” edition becomes a seminal resource on Southern culture.

 

Sick for Justice

Summer 1978: Health issue of the magazine exposes the deadly Brown Lung disease caused by cotton dust in textile plants — later picked up by mainstream papers, leading to federal hearings — and the history of “people’s medicine” in the South.

 

Crime and Punishment

Winter 1978: Drawing on writings from over 50 inmates behind bars, issue devoted to Southern prisons asks, “why are we losing the battle against crime?” Answer: “Our present [justice] system promotes rather than eliminates it.”

 

Just Schools

Summer 1979: 25 years after the Brown decision struck down legal segregation, “Just Schools” tells the story of the courageous people who, with their bodies, actually integrated public schools — and documents the persistence of segregation.

 

Radioactive

Winter 1979: On the heels of the Three Mile Island disaster, “Tower of Babel” issue gets to the “core” of the nuclear reactor problem: profit-driven utilities and lack of government oversite.

 

The Klan’s Mark

Summer 1980: “Mark of the Beast” edition documents the resurgence of Klan terror — and the complicity of authorities in hate-group activity. A follow-up report in 1981 on the 1979 Klan killing of five activists in Greensboro helps spur a federal investigation by the justice department into the intimate alliance between the KKK and law enforcement officials.

 

Stayed on Freedom

Spring 1981: Landmark history of the Civil Rights struggle — highlighting the “unsung” heroes who made change happen — becomes a standard sourcebook on freedom movement history.

 

Coastal Affair

May/June 1982: A collection of writing on the history and future of the South’s coasts, and the commercial interests determined to erode their natural and cultural beauty.

 

Waging Peace

November/December 1982: As the arms race spirals out of control, the magazine once again turns its eyes to the South’s reliance on defense spending, and the region’s role in the military-industrial complex.

 

Welcome to Cancer Alley

March/April 1984: Report on “The Poisoning of Louisiana” is one of the first investigations into the now-infamous “Cancer Alley,” a chemical industry hot-spot stretching from New Orleans to Baton Rouge and national case-study in environmental racism.

 

Blowing Smoke

September/October 1984: Anticipating the tobacco industry battles of the 1990s, the magazine exposes the Southern “Smoke Ring” that uses deceit to market its cancerous products, especially in the “Third World.”

 

Coming of Age

March/June 1985: Drawing on lifetimes of experience, “Older, Wiser, Stronger” tells the stories of Southern elders who have stayed on the move.

 

Dividing and Conquering

September/October 1985: “The Quiet Epidemic” reveals the right’s new successful strategy for defeating progressive challengers: gay-baiting. The Christian right would increasingly use “homosexual influence” as a wedge issue in Southern and national campaigns.

 

Native Southerners

November/December 1985: A landmark study of Native Americans in the South, “We Are Here Forever” becomes a standard resource for educators and activists on the region’s native heritage.

 

Best of the Southern Press

Fall/Winter 1987: Southern Exposure publishes results of the first annual Southern Journalism Awards, one of many Institute projects to “honor reporters who stories broaden the range of issues, voices and sources typically found in the mainstream media.”

 

New South, New Look

Fall 1988: Southern Exposure launches a new look — featuring Ms. Gay Charleston on the cover of an issue devoted to “Mint Juleps, Wisteria and Queers.”

 

Ruling the Roost

Summer 1989: Classic investigation of the burgeoning poultry industry’s effect on farmers, workers and consumers is nominated for the National Magazine Award for public interest reporting, and spurs successful advocacy for workplace reforms.

 

The Lion’s Share

Summer 1991: SE’s investigation into Food Lion’s harassment of employees, forced overtime policies and child labor infractions draws fire from the company — and $16.2 million in fines from the Department of Labor, the largest wage-and-hour penalty ever paid by a private employer in U.S. history.

 

Pride in the Delta

Fall 1991: “Fishy Business” shows how Mississippi has replaced cotton with catfish for a new plantation industry, and the historic campaign of workers to reclaim dignity.

 

Nursing Homes and Hogs

Fall 1992: Southern Exposure shows how, a decade after the nursing home scandals of the 1980s, they’re still fraught with corruption. This issue also features “Hog Wild,” an investigation into the corporate hog industry — a story later picked up by mainstream media, leading to government regulation of the industry.

 

Poverty, Inc.

 Winter 1993: The magazine’s expose of the “poverty industry” — the collection of banks, rental shops and other corporations that prey on the poor — wins the John Hancock Award for Excellence in Business and Financial Journalism.

 

Talkin’ About My Generation

Fall/Winter 1995: “Targeting Youth” reveals that child-labor violations “are greater than at any point during the 1930s” — one of the year’s “Top Censored Stories” according to Project Censored.

 

Dixie Rising

Fall 1996: Over a generation after the official “Southern Strategy” was unveiled, Southern Exposure documents the continuing dominance of the South in shaping national politics.

 

The Global South

Summer/Fall 1998: Special globalization issue shows how billions of dollars in tax breaks and other “corporate welfare” have lured multinational corporations, and turned the South into a lynchpin of the world economy.