Jim Crow 2.0: As US elections near, new efforts to suppress Black votes Georgia primary today shines a light on Draconian measures to ensure Republican victories at the ballot box. Al Jazeera · Mar 12, 2024
"Origin" makes injustice feel personal The director of "13th" connects Isabel Wilkerson's story to the vast thesis of her acclaimed 2020 non-fiction book Salon · Jan 26, 2024
How the resistance can stay persistent Journalist Thomas Ricks on why Americans have been "given a flat narrow story" of the fight for democracy in the US Salon · Jan 18, 2024
For a lesson in uniting against oligarchs and racist politics, look at 1870s Virginia Working-class white former Confederates joined Black families to save free public schools that oligarchs were trying to eliminate. If they could come together then, what’s stopping Americans from uniting now? Chicago Sun-Times · Jan 9, 2024
Looking back at some of the best Texas Tribune reads of 2023 Our journalists brought life to the experiences of everyday Texans, held powerful institutions accountable and surfaced stories that went beyond the daily news cycles. The Texas Tribune · Dec 26, 2023
Civil Rights Groups Urge Federal Appeals Court To Strike Down Mississippi's Jim Crow–Era Felon Voting Ban A broad coalition of civil rights groups and think tanks, including Reason Foundation, say that Mississippi's "mandatory, permanent, and effectively irrevocable" voting ban for certain offenders violates the Constitution. Reason · Dec 14, 2023
Rosalynn Carter made a wrongfully convicted felon a White House nanny and helped win her pardon Rosalynn Carter used her powerful posts to address injustices as her husband rose in politics, especially those imposed as part of the racist Jim Crow system that prevailed in Georgia The Independent UK · Nov 21, 2023
US Army to overturn century-old convictions of 110 Black soldiers U.S. Army officials say they will overturn the convictions of 110 Black soldiers for a mutiny at a Houston military camp a century ago in a trial that had racial undertones The Independent UK · Nov 14, 2023
Purlie Victorious review – Ossie Davis play makes triumphant Broadway return Leslie Odom Jr leads a note-perfect cast in a revival of Ossie Davis’s thoughtful comedy about a preacher scheming to save his church in the Jim Crow South The Guardian - US · Sep 28, 2023
Mississippi should restore the voting rights of former felons, Democratic candidates say Democratic nominees for two statewide offices are saying that Mississippi should stop defending a Jim Crow-era portion of its state constitution that permanently strips voting rights from people convicted of certain felonies The Independent UK · Sep 14, 2023
The states where it’s impossible to vote if you have a felony conviction While states in recent years have moved away from Jim Crow-era policies, several still make it difficult for people leaving prison to regain the right to vote The Guardian - US · Sep 7, 2023
Origin review – a heartfelt look at a journalist challenging the concept of race There are solid performances in this dramatisation of Isabel Wilkerson’s attempt to explain racism as an aspect of the caste system, but it may have been better as a documentary The Guardian - UK · Sep 6, 2023
8 things to know about Wheeler Parker Jr., Emmett Till’s cousin, eyewitness to his lynching Wheeler Parker, minister of a suburban Argo church, talks about Emmett Till’s 1955 lynching and brutal murder by white supremacists in Mississippi — and what triggered it. Chicago Sun-Times · Aug 28, 2023
Family legacies and the state’s Jim Crow past underlie a fight over mineral rights on a stretch of South Texas scrubland Descendants of a prominent white family and a formerly enslaved couple are fighting over ownership — and the oil and gas royalties that would come with it — of an 147.5-acre tract that has bound and divided generations of their families. The Texas Tribune · Aug 24, 2023
Reason · Aug 23, 2023 Both Biden and Trump Are Bad Candidates The next presidential election may be between the two men. Can't we do better?
The Conversation · Aug 8, 2023 When Confederate-glorifying monuments went up in the South, voting in Black areas went down Confederate monuments burst into public consciousness in 2015 when a shooting at a historically Black church in Charleston, South Carolina, instigated the first broad calls for their removal. The shooter intended to start a race war and had posed with Confederate imagery in photos posted online.
The Guardian - US · Aug 4, 2023 Mississippi’s Jim Crow-era voting law struck down by federal appeals court 2-1 ruling on policy that revoked voting rights for certain people with felony convictions is surprise victory from conservative court
The Independent UK · Aug 1, 2023 Georgia prosecutor tells staff to ‘stay alert’ following racist threats with looming Trump indictment Officials condemn ‘repugnant’ messages after former president baselessly smears Black prosecutors as ‘racist’
The Guardian - UK · Jul 27, 2023 David Harewood on Blackface review – a shocking, deeply moving piece of television In a personal look at the shocking origins of minstrelsy, the actor speaks truth to power on the same channel that showed blackface in his living room when he was growing up
The Guardian - US · Jul 11, 2023 California faces backlash as it weighs historic reparations for Black residents The state has become the focus of the nation’s divisive reparations conversation as it advances its reparations efforts
Chicago Sun-Times · Jul 4, 2023 Supreme Court opens the door to gut civil rights, fair housing laws Substitute “African American” for “LGBT+” in the case of Colorado web designer Lorie Smith, and you’ve got a return to the bad old days of Jim Crow when so many alleged Christians insisted their religion required separation of the races, a lawyer writes.
The Conversation · Jul 3, 2023 How new state laws and book ban movements have made the teaching of US history contentious – 5 essential reads Of all the subjects taught in America’s public schools, few have become as contentious as U.S. history. At least 37 states have adopted new measures that limit how America’s undeniable history of racism – from chattel slavery to Jim Crow – can be discussed in public school classrooms.
McClatchy Washington Bureau · Jul 2, 2023 Heirs to Black-owned homes face ramped-up foreclosures. Here’s who’s pushing back When Henry Scott’s mother died two years ago, there was never a doubt he’d want to keep her home. He most definitely did.
Tribune News Service · Jun 29, 2023 POINT: State of the republic — precarious The state of the republic is precarious, but I am hopeful that democracy will prevail because it is resilient. We the people have faced serious threats in the past, including even a Civil War, and we have overcome them. We must continue to pass laws to strengthen our democracy in…
Salon · Jun 28, 2023 Book bans led to "expunging" impeachment Authoritarians don't just want to control the distant past, they feel entitled to erase events we all remember