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These stories shed light on the future of our work... friend, 2023 is coming to a close, which means it’s time for our annual look back at the SPLC’s most-read stories of the year. The SPLC reporting that supporters like you read, clicked and shared the most reveal what motivates our movement to continue the march for justice. These stories also shed light on the future of our work. They exposed the new face and growing power of white supremacy, highlighted the grave need to defend voting rights and strengthen our democracy and demonstrated the importance of teaching truthful history. 1. Georgia teacher fired for reading children’s book about acceptance in class When elementary school teacher Katie Rinderle read aloud the international, best-selling children’s book My Shadow is Purple to her fifth grade gifted class at Due West Elementary School in Cobb County, Georgia, earlier this year, she never suspected that she was risking her 10-year career. 2. Governor improperly suspends Florida’s only Black female state attorney On Aug. 9, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis issued an executive order suspending Monique Worrell from her position as the top state prosecutor in Orlando. “Instead of honoring the will of the voters — who overwhelmingly supported Ms. Worrell — Gov. DeSantis has gone down a dangerous, authoritarian path,” said Avner Shapiro, a senior supervising attorney with the SPLC’s democracy and voting rights group. 3. ‘Hopeless’: Parole denial for Alabama woman with terminal illness highlights injustice Leola Harris uses a wheelchair for mobility and undergoes dialysis three times a week. She has diabetes. She is unable to go to the bathroom by herself and has spent extended periods in the infirmary of Julia Tutwiler Prison for Women. A nursing home agreed to take her to live out her final days. Still, the parole board took just six minutes to deny her parole. Nine miles before Florida State Road 24 dead-ends in the Gulf of Mexico, a cast aluminum historical marker stands next to a white two-story home — all that is left of Rosewood, a once-thriving, predominantly Black town terrorized and razed to the ground by a racist mob 100 years ago this January. 5. Railroaded: Residents of predominantly Black Georgia community fight back against train proposal “These are older people, they are retired, they don’t really have the means to litigate against a railroad company with seemingly unlimited resources, and so this really pushes the question of, why did the railroad company choose this route?” said Jamie Rush, senior staff attorney with the SPLC’s Economic Justice Project. We remain deeply committed to keep telling the stories and fighting for the rights of those living in the Deep South. Until the great injustices that persist there and across our nation come to an end, the march continues. Sincerely, Your friends at the Southern Poverty Law Center
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