Southern Politics

January 18, 2013 - Much of the impetus for the civil rights movement came from students who led marches, took beatings, sang freedom songs, and went to jail. James Orange organized schools in Birmingham, Ala. and recounted his experiences in a 1981 interview in Southern Exposure, which we share in honor of the magazine's 40th anniversary.

January 17, 2013 - In 2012, 41 percent of Southern voters chose a Democrat for Congress. But this month, less than a third of U.S. Representatives from the South will be Democrats. Welcome to the world of gerrymandering, Southern-style.

January 11, 2013 - The new year promises lots of action on the labor front -- and as always in the South, it comes with heavy baggage from the past.

January 7, 2013 - A judge has ruled that a law passed by the Republican-controlled legislature to punish the N.C. Association of Educators by barring it from collecting dues through payroll deduction represents unconstitutional "retaliatory viewpoint discrimination."

January 3, 2013 - One of the biggest decisions facing North Carolina's new legislature and governor is whether to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act to cover more than 500,000 low-income people. Much of the opposition to expansion is more about ideology than anything else, a visceral reaction to a law that has been mischaracterized since it was proposed.

January 2, 2013 - A little-noticed loophole in the fiscal cliff bill gives NASCAR a multimillion-dollar tax break. Do they need it?

December 21, 2012 - Wealthy Republican donor Art Pope has been building influence and clout for years in North Carolina. Appointed this week to direct the state's budget, he now finds himself with his hands on the levers of power.