Justice

March 16, 2022 - Satana Deberry was elected as the district attorney for Durham County, North Carolina, in 2018 after running on a progressive platform. She recently testified before a U.S. House Judiciary subcommittee to defend the movement to reform law enforcement, explaining how over-reliance on prosecution and incarceration makes communities less safe.

March 9, 2022 - Organizers are frustrated by Biden giving short shrift to voting rights in his first State of the Union address. In response, they're stepping up efforts to secure federal voting protections as state legislatures across the South continue to pass suppressive voting laws.

March 9, 2022 - Mississippi civil rights organizer Fannie Lou Hamer passed away 45 years ago this month. A recent book and documentary examine her life and work amid a pitched national debate over how to teach and think about U.S. racial history.

March 7, 2022 - As trans youth face a crisis of harassment, violence, and trauma, Republican politicians up for reelection in Texas and other states are launching misleading attacks on them and their families in a blatant attempt to stir up the party's base and win votes. Legal and human rights advocates and the Biden administration are taking steps to protect the lives of these vulnerable young Americans as others press for boycotts.

March 3, 2022 - While reporting on the human rights crisis in Alabama's prisons, journalist Beth Shelburne began corresponding with incarcerated men in the state about their fight to read. She recounts their ongoing battles against censorship inside an irrational system where books and magazines are treated like dangerous contraband.

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. 

February 17, 2022 - The House Natural Resources Committee held a hearing this week on the Environmental Justice for All Act, which would strengthen protections for vulnerable communities from environmental health threats. We share the official testimony of Amy Laura Cahn, director of the Environmental Justice Clinic at the Vermont Law School, who discussed waste dumping in Alabama and pipeline construction in Virginia in making a case for the bill's transformative power.