Alabama

October 23, 2020 - Across the rural South's Black Belt, the lack of adequate sewage and water infrastructure has created serious public health problems. We spoke with Catherine Coleman Flowers, a longtime environmental justice activist in rural Alabama and the recent recipient of a MacArthur Foundation "genius" grant, about her work to draw attention to the region's intersecting crises and how grassroots activism can impact federal policy. 

July 16, 2020 - As COVID-19 cases spike across the South, even some of the region's most conservative governors have instituted statewide face-covering mandates. Then there's Georgia's Brian Kemp.

July 16, 2020 - Pamela Rush of rural Tyler, Alabama, recently passed away from complications of COVID-19. But far before the coronavirus infected her body, the Poor People's Campaign activist was battling the viruses of structural racism and poverty.

July 15, 2020 - With COVID-19 cases on the rise in Southern states, federal and state elected officials are trying to prevent infected customers and workers from being able to sue negligent businesses.

July 9, 2020 - States across the country require people with felony convictions to purchase their voting rights back if they ever want to cast a ballot again. It is a mechanism that felony disenfranchisement schemes increasingly rely upon, and it marks a return to the sordid tactics of Jim Crow.

April 17, 2020 - Severe weather devastated communities across the South over Easter weekend. Now they're trying to figure out how to recover from a natural disaster in the middle of a pandemic — and how to prepare for future storms.

April 10, 2020 - The Southeast Crescent Regional Commission was created in 2008 to provide economic development assistance to Black Belt states but has never received its full appropriation from Congress — even while its counterpart covering whiter, richer Northern states has. With Black Belt communities being ravaged by the pandemic, it's past time for action.