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Friend,
As we look ahead to 2024 and beyond, we’re excited to launch the Hopewatch blog as a place to foster connection and community, to share stories about people on the front lines of change in the Deep South, and – as the name suggests – to deepen our capacity for hope.
If you’re reading this post, I don’t need to tell you that this is an extraordinarily difficult time in our country. But I will share that at the Southern Poverty Law Center, we’re thinking a lot about what we can offer at this moment that will serve as an antidote to the fear and despair gripping so many of us.
The advocacy, the litigation, the organizing – all of that is essential work. But equally important to our mission is taking the time to remember why we do this work in the first place. How do we continually affirm each other’s humanity? How do we celebrate the incremental progress we are making? How do we insist on joy? How do we stay inspired?
Those are some of the questions that will drive our content for this blog, and I can’t wait for you to meet the people, community partners and projects the blog will feature. So much incredible work is happening on the ground in the Deep South, and I know you’ll be as inspired as I am to read about the everyday triumphs of human rights and the human spirit that motivate our work.
Consider last week’s election results out of Mississippi. State officials have tried in recent years to deny Mississippians – especially those who are Black and Brown – a voice in government and in shaping the state’s future. The state Legislature has passed bills to purge voter rolls, limit people’s ability to choose their own leaders and make it more difficult for elderly people and people with disabilities to vote by mail. The Mississippi Supreme Court also rescinded people’s right to put measures on statewide ballots after voters overwhelmingly supported a medical marijuana initiative.
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In solidarity,
Your friends at the Southern Poverty Law Center
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