racial disparities

June 9, 2022 - Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has blamed unaddressed mental health problems for the mass shooting of 19 schoolchildren and two teachers at an elementary school in Uvalde. So why isn't he pressing to expand Medicaid in his state and others to give more people access to care? Meanwhile, mental health advocates say they worry about politicians' rhetoric linking mental illness and mass shootings.

May 4, 2022 - Corporal punishment is disproportionately inflicted on Black children and is higher in areas with histories of lynching. Organizers are seeking to put an end to it.

May 4, 2022 - If you've never witnessed or experienced a school paddling, it may be hard to understand how terrifying they are to a child. Yet U.S. public school teachers and principals in 19 states are allowed to beat children with wooden paddles, which originated as a tool to inflict pain on enslaved people without causing permanent injury that might impede their work.

February 25, 2022 - Inspired by her own experience with postpartum depression, Louisiana nurse practitioner and doula Nikki Greenaway launched an innovative practice to care for vulnerable new mothers. She talks with Facing South about how her model of community care can help address the maternal mortality crisis, which is especially dire among young Black women living in Louisiana and other Southern states. 

November 19, 2021 - A new report finds that while they have made dramatic progress in recent decades, Black women are still underrepresented in politics, with the disparities especially stark in Southern states. Next year's elections offer another chance for them to build power.

November 16, 2021 - The 2020 census undercounted the overall U.S. population by just 0.5%, but much bigger undercounts in Southern states will cost them millions of dollars in federal health care funding for low-income communities, according to a new report from the Urban Institute.

September 24, 2021 - It's been 10 years since Georgia executed Troy Davis despite questions about his guilt and calls for mercy from world leaders. One Southern state has outlawed capital punishment since then, but most states in the region still have death sentences on the books.