Southern lawmakers want more limits on citizen-initiated ballot measures

Arkansas and Florida are the only Southern states that still allow citizens to place questions on the ballot, but Republican lawmakers there want to erect new barriers to this form of direct democracy. (3/23/2022)

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TESTIMONY: 'Stop pretending reform is the real threat to public safety'

Satana Deberry was elected as the district attorney for Durham County, North Carolina, in 2018 after running on a progressive platform. She recently testified before a U.S. House Judiciary subcommittee to defend the movement to reform law enforcement, explaining how over-reliance on prosecution and incarceration makes communities less safe. (3/16/2022)

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From the Archives: Notes on the early Black press

In a 1975 issue of Southern Exposure titled "Focus on the Media," civil rights activist and academic Gloria Blackwell wrote about the opportunities the early Black press provided for Black women journalists. (3/21/2022)

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New federal anti-lynching law confronts ongoing legacy of racial terror

More than a century after the first anti-lynching legislation was introduced in Congress by a Black member from North Carolina, lawmakers finally passed a bill that makes lynching a federal crime. Advocates hope that the new law will address the generational damage caused by racial violence and prevent modern-day lynchings from going unpunished.

The South's utilities are still trying to thwart rooftop solar

Despite the urgency of the climate crisis, electric utilities across the South — including Duke Energy, Florida Power & Light, and Dominion Energy — are working in concert with fossil fuel interests to promote policies that discourage consumers from installing rooftop solar systems. Will regulators let them get away with it?