March 24, 2021 -
U.S. senators are currently considering whether to eliminate, reform, or protect the filibuster. The parliamentary procedure that gives the minority outsized power has a long history of being used to undermine civil rights legislation — and it now threatens to derail a bold Democratic agenda that includes voting rights and other pro-democracy reforms.
March 24, 2021 -
In the wake of historic Black Lives Matter protests, Republican lawmakers in Southern states have introduced two dozen bills this year that could lead to new criminal charges for protesters — even peaceful ones. Most Southern states already have at least one such law on the books.
March 23, 2021 -
The organizer who pioneered politically transformative get-out-the-vote efforts in Georgia is now using that existing infrastructure to get some of the state's most vulnerable residents vaccinated against COVID-19.
March 17, 2021 -
The COVID-19 pandemic contributed to the ongoing loss of hospital beds in rural communities across the South. The greatest losses were in Tennessee — among the states that haven't expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. The rate of rural hospital closures in non-expansion states is six times greater than in states that expanded the program.
March 17, 2021 -
Water being delivered by truck in Mississippi's capital city. The electrical grid collapse in Texas. The hacking of a Florida water treatment plant. All of these appear at first glance to be infrastructure failures, but at their root is a failure of politics.
March 12, 2021 -
The Institute for Southern Studies was founded 51 years ago this week. To celebrate our birthday and commemorate our history, we're republishing an oral history from Sue Thrasher, one of the founders of the organization and an original editor of Southern Exposure magazine, the print publication that preceded Facing South.
March 11, 2021 -
Passed by the House earlier this week and championed by President Biden, the pro-labor law could break the stranglehold that right-to-work laws adopted under Jim Crow have placed on workers' power in the region. But it has to get through the Senate first.
