Andrea Cristina Mercado on Florida's abortion amendment campaign On the same day the Florida Supreme Court upheld new abortion restrictions, it also cleared the way for a ballot measure this fall that would enshrine abortion rights in the state’s constitution. A long-time Florida organizer and co-leader of the ballot initiative campaign talked with Facing South about the high stakes of the Amendment Four campaign and their strategy to win. Read More > AI disinformation poses new risks for Southern voters  This year will be the first election cycle to be impacted by the widespread use of artificial intelligence, technology that could spread disinformation that impacts already marginalized communities. State and federal lawmakers are now scrambling to implement measures to help safeguard the electoral process. Read More > 'A rigged game': Labor targets Southern automakers Last week, Shawn Fain, president of the United Auto Workers, called out the "low-wage strategy" of car manufacturers in the South and outlined the UAW's plan to organize the region, which has already included a successful union election at a VW plant in Tennessee and a new Daimler Truck contract covering workers in three Southern states. Watch Here> Remembering the 1936 UAW sit-down strike  There's precedent for the South's recent autoworker labor victories: In 1936, workers at an Atlanta General Motors plant helped kick off that union's famous "sit-down strike." This Southern Exposure piece from 1974 features an oral history of that early labor battle. Read More > Facing South/Southern Exposure reading list for Gaza organizers A collection of Facing South and Southern Exposure’s past coverage of militarism and state repression of protest in the South, created for the students, community organizers, faculty, and staff protesting the U.S.-backed destruction in Gaza in cities and on campuses around the country. Read More > The South's democracy struggle reaches new urgency  Voter suppression sweeping the South has been met by renewed organizing efforts to secure democracy, writes Benjamin Barber, director of the Democracy Program at the Institute for Southern Studies, in the latest issue of Southern Cultures. Read More > Texas abortion laws haven't stopped Amy Hagstrom Miller In this month's issue of The Nation, Institute archives editor Olivia Paschal profiles Whole Woman's Health CEO Amy Hagstrom Miller, whose abortion clinics across the South are facing the new post-Dobbs reality of abortion restrictions that have created "border states" for access to health care. Read More > Five questions with Marc Miller The former Southern Exposure editor and Institute for Southern Studies staffer reflects on his work on the Southern Exposure digital archives project over the last two years and his career at the Institute. Read More > Not This Virginia  The Hugo and Nebula Award-winning science fiction and fantasy writer Terry Bisson, a Kentucky native, passed away in January 2024. Read Bisson's original short story "Not This Virginia," published in Southern Exposure in 1999. Read More > | 
