Elisha Brown

January 26, 2023 - MacArthur "genius award" winner Loretta Ross helped launch the reproductive justice movement and co-founded SisterSong, a Georgia-based nonprofit that works to improve systems impacting the reproductive lives of marginalized communities. Facing South spoke with the professor and public intellectual about conditions post-Roe — and how Southern legislatures that oppose abortion can make parenting easier. 

January 13, 2023 - The Food and Drug Administration is now allowing pharmacies to stock the abortion medication mifepristone. But most Southern states have near-total abortion bans while the rest restrict abortion pill access, so the decision does not make it easier for most residents seeking to terminate pregnancies.

December 16, 2022 - Two electrical substations in Moore County, North Carolina, were recently vandalized with gunfire during a contested drag show, leaving tens of thousands of residents in the cold and dark for days. Though authorities have not released a motive for the attacks, they occurred amid rising threats and violence directed at LGBTQ gatherings in the South. 

November 30, 2022 - A new book co-edited by economist William "Sandy" Darity Jr. and his colleagues at Duke University explores how the coronavirus pandemic worsened racial inequality. Facing South recently spoke with Darity, a leading scholar of reparations for slavery, about policies to address the racial wealth gap.

November 18, 2022 - Voters across the South weighed in on dozens of high-profile ballot initiatives in this year's general election, directly shaping policy on matters including reproductive rights, prison labor, and ballot measures themselves. In another election to be held next month, Louisiana voters will consider three ballot measures, including one to bar noncitizens from voting in local elections.

October 14, 2022 - A third of U.S. anti-abortion crisis pregnancy centers are in the South, a region where dozens of abortion clinics have closed since the Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to an abortion in June. Over the past decade, Republican-controlled legislatures have given millions of tax dollars to these fake clinics that traffic in dangerous misinformation.

September 29, 2022 - Workers at dozens of Starbucks locations in Southern states have unionized despite the region's harsh anti-union laws and the coffee chain's intimidating tactics, which have included terminations, surveillance, and mandatory anti-union meetings. This week the company announced it would begin bargaining with Starbucks Workers United in October.