Demographic Change

November 30, 2015 - In 2016, the U.S. will hold the first presidential election in 50 years without the full protections of the landmark Voting Rights Act of 1965. Facing South sat down with investigative journalist Ari Berman to discuss his new book "Give Us the Ballot" to discuss the 50-year history of the VRA and lessons we can learn for the modern voting rights struggle.

November 13, 2015 - Republicans may dominate state politics in the South, but Democrats have managed to hold on to the mayorships of the region's biggest cities. There are limits to local control, however — and in recent years GOP state lawmakers have imposed even more.

October 22, 2015 - Not usually thought of as an immigrant hub, Arkansas has a small but fast-growing immigrant community and has been more welcoming than some other Southern states.

October 15, 2015 - A new Institute report finds that whites make up 95 percent of the state's largest political donors to high-profile contests and account for 97 percent of the big donations.

September 25, 2015 - The recent case of Ahmed Mohamed, a Sudanese-American student in Irving, Texas who was detained for bringing a homemade clock to school, has shed light on tension between the Dallas suburb's racially diverse population and its nearly entirely white local leadership — a dynamic that has persisted despite efforts to ensure local leadership reflects the broader community.

September 16, 2015 - A poll released this summer highlighted the environment as a major concern among Latino voters, even though they might not think of themselves as environmentalists. The South's growing Latino communities are engaging with environmental issues in a variety of ways.

July 24, 2015 - As the growth of the South's immigrant population transforms the region, the makeup of its immigrant communities is shifting, with Asian immigration now outpacing immigration from Latin America in several states.