Race and Civil Rights

May 30, 2013 - A chemical spill from a natural gas facility has been sickening residents of an African-American community near Mobile, Ala. for five years now -- and it could take years to clean up the mess.

May 24, 2013 - Over 150 people have been arrested so far in nonviolent protests against the N.C. legislature's far-right agenda, and even bigger actions are planned next month.

May 22, 2013 - While fighting a union at its plant in Canton, Miss., Nissan makes a big gift to the Evers Institute -- perhaps forgetting that civil rights martyr Medgar Evers was a big union supporter.

May 9, 2013 - The three-judge panel hearing a lawsuit challenging North Carolina's redistricting on the grounds that it dilutes the African-American vote called the attorneys together this week to discuss a few remaining questions, indicating a decision could be near.

April 22, 2013 - As the South's hard-right pols block expanding Medicaid to a population in need, they show that civil rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer's description of the region's government as "with the handful, for the handful, by the handful" remains true today.

April 2, 2013 - The Supreme Court, poised to rule on a major affirmative action case out of Texas, accepts another one from Michigan. What might this say about dismantling race-conscious programs?

March 27, 2013 - Should the Supreme Court strike down bans on same-sex marriage, it would bring big changes across the South, where all states limit marriage rights to heterosexual couples -- and it wouldn't be the first time it took a high court ruling to change the region's marriage laws.