First-time voters played a decisive role in the 2020 elections

First-time voters including young people, former felons, and newly naturalized citizens proved to be a crucial voting bloc in many races nationwide including in Georgia, which a Democratic presidential candidate hadn't won in 28 years. Experts predict that these first-time voters will continue to play an important role in shaping Southern and national politics. (12/3/2020)

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The campaign to overturn Trump's truth-denying equity gag order

Partly in response to the acclaim for Nikole Hannah-Jones's The 1619 Project on slavery's legacy in the U.S., President Trump recently signed an executive order that seeks to stifle federal agencies, contractors, and grant recipients from talking about systemic racism and sexism. Refusing to be silenced, the African American Policy Forum has launched an effort to overturn it. (12/3/2020)

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GOP pushes more bans on COVID-19 lawsuits against negligent businesses

Republican lawmakers in Florida and Washington, D.C., are pushing bills to keep workers or customers who get COVID-19 from holding businesses accountable in court. The GOP wants legal immunity for businesses that comply with government standards. (12/1/2020)

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VOICES: Deconstructing the systems crushing the South's young people in the pandemic

Victoria Bowden, 25, of Stone Mountain, Georgia, shares her and other young people's difficult experiences trying to get by during the COVID-19 pandemic. Now a graduate student intern with the Southern Economic Advancement Project, she offers practical ideas for fixing the systems that put young Southerners at risk of heavy debt, poverty, homelessness, and mental illness. (12/4/2020)

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Tracking the continuing election fallout in Georgia

Conspiracy theories and false allegations about the presidential election are flying around in the Peach State, with all eyes on the two January runoffs that will decide control of the Senate. Here are some of the important recent developments.

Institute welcomes new Julian Bond Fellow

The Institute for Southern Studies is excited to announce Elisha Brown as the recipient of the Julian Bond Fellowship for 2021.

Elisha comes to the Institute from The New York Times, where she worked for two years at the national news desk. At the Times, Elisha covered voting rights, the COVID-19 crisis, and other national issues, and was co-lead reporter for The Neediest Cases Fund, which chronicled New Yorkers in underserved communities. Elisha grew up in Cheraw, South Carolina, and attended American University, where she founded The Blackprint, a website for students of color. Her work has also been published in The Atlantic, The Daily Beast, and Vox.

"I'm thrilled to join the Institute for Southern Studies as the 2021 Julian Bond Fellow," said Elisha. "I look forward to reporting stories for Facing South that explore the complexities of politics and people in the region."

The Julian Bond Fellowship is a nine-month program launched in 2019 to support early-career journalists and researchers interested in issues of justice and equality in the South. The program honors Julian Bond, the late civil rights veteran, journalist, and co-founder of the Institute.

The inaugural Julian Bond Fellow, Rolando Zenteno — a native of Chiapas, Mexico, currently based in Atlanta — completed his fellowship this fall, after publishing more than a dozen stories on immigration, the impact of COVID-19 on communities of color, labor, and other issues in the South.

Want to support new voices for change in the South? Donate today to support the Julian Bond Fellowship! On our 50th anniversary, the Institute is launching a campaign to raise $500,000 for the Fellowship and provide opportunities for a new generation of journalists and researchers in the South.

If you donate $50 or more today, you'll receive this unique mug commemorating Julian Bond, the civil rights hero and Institute co-founder.

Prefer to donate by mail? Make checks payable to Institute for Southern Studies, write "Julian Bond Fellowship" in the memo line, and mail to: ISS Attn: Bond Fellowship, P.O. Box 531, Durham, N.C. 27702. Thank you!

Meet the conservative powerbroker suing True the Vote over fraud claims flop

North Carolina pharmaceutical entrepreneur Fred Eshelman gave $2.5 million to the Houston-based group to pursue claims of fraud in the presidential election, which he says they failed to take adequate action to substantiate. It's not the first time Eshelman, a big political spender who gives most of his money to outside groups, has been involved in funding ethically questionable efforts.