ron desantis
October 17, 2024 -
Paul Ortiz joined the Southern Labor Studies Association's Working History podcast to discuss higher education organizing in Florida and the history of higher education labor in the South.
September 26, 2023 -
Two days before the start of school, the Arkansas Department of Education said that AP African American Studies would not count for graduation credit, citing a recent law banning ‘indoctrination.’ Arkansas educators — including some at schools that are still offering the course — share their perspectives.
May 12, 2023 -
Some states have taken steps to restore voting rights for people with felony convictions, but Republican officials in places including Florida and North Carolina later reversed the reforms. Proponents of permanent disenfranchisement say it promotes respect for the law, but a growing body of evidence suggests that such policies make their targets more likely to break it again.
April 14, 2023 -
After a shooter recently killed six people at an elementary school in Tennessee's capital city, mass protests demanded tougher gun laws, which are supported by most Americans. But the state's Republican-controlled legislature instead took action to lift restrictions on guns while refusing to debate new ones — and it's not alone in the region.
March 30, 2023 -
The nonprofit Electronic Registration Information Center was formed and is led by a bipartisan group of state election officials to help member states maintain accurate voter rolls. Seven states have quit ERIC in the past year as the far right has spread disinformation about it, but Republican election officials in a number of Southern states have reaffirmed their commitment to the group.
December 2, 2022 -
Mega-donors have spent millions of dollars supporting election deniers for federal and state offices in the South, while Republican-controlled states have launched law enforcement units aimed at fueling the deniers' narrative. But all that spending so far hasn't translated into big wins for deniers in key positions.
November 18, 2022 -
The Republican wave that many pundits predicted this year didn't happen, but the party captured control of the U.S. House of Representatives thanks to federal and state courts allowing extreme manipulation of voting maps.
