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August 24, 2022 - The state's Democratic-controlled high court ruled that a legislature found to discriminate against Black voters doesn't have unlimited authority to propose constitutional amendments. The decision caps off a four-year legal battle over amendments approved by voters that mandate voter ID and lower the state's income tax cap.

March 18, 2022 - More than a century after the first anti-lynching legislation was introduced in Congress by a Black member from North Carolina, lawmakers finally passed a bill that makes lynching a federal crime. Advocates hope that the new law will address the generational damage caused by racial violence and prevent modern-day lynchings from going unpunished.

January 13, 2022 - A Republican justice on the North Carolina Supreme Court will hear a lawsuit filed against his father, the leader of the state Senate, over whether a racially gerrymandered legislature can amend the constitution. The decision came after his colleagues decided not to disqualify him, amid a pressure campaign by powerful conservative forces that accused the court of engaging in a coup and threatened justices with impeachment.

December 17, 2021 - Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi are among the states with the lowest vaccination rates. Grassroots organizations there are partnering with public health officials to battle misinformation and distrust in rural, Latino, and Black communities — but elected officials in those states aren't making their jobs any easier.

November 18, 2021 - Voting rights groups have challenged election districts for the Louisiana Supreme Court, which counts just one Black justice among its seven members. Legislators want to add new districts to settle the suit, but their most recent attempt broke down over the issue of how many should have majority-Black populations.

September 17, 2021 - Though a lawsuit seeking to restore the voting rights of North Carolinians on probation or parole suffered setbacks in recent court rulings, the broader movement to re-enfranchise people with felony convictions has made gains in Southern states in recent years.

August 12, 2020 - A federal appeals court recently overturned a lower court ruling that required a new majority-Black judicial election district in Terrebonne Parish. Only one Black judge has served there, but a white judge was re-elected after donning blackface and a prison jumpsuit for Halloween. The case is part of a broader struggle for judicial elections that are fair to Black voters.