'Corporal punishment is violence': Black communities vow to ban school paddling

Corporal punishment is disproportionately inflicted on Black children and is higher in areas with histories of lynching. Organizers are seeking to put an end to it. (5/4/2022)

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VOICES: Why school paddling is legal child abuse

If you've never witnessed or experienced a school paddling, it may be hard to understand how terrifying they are to a child. Yet U.S. public school teachers and principals in 19 states are allowed to beat children with wooden paddles, which originated as a tool to inflict pain on enslaved people without causing permanent injury that might impede their work. (5/4/2022)

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Senate to vote on groundbreaking judicial nominees with Southern roots

Republican senators recently grilled Biden judicial nominee Nancy Abudu, a civil rights lawyer who has protected abortion rights and fought voter suppression in the Deep South. Senators also heard from four other nominees, all women of color. At least one nominee has bipartisan support. (5/4/2022)

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NEPA restoration buoys Gulf Coast enviros' fight with Big Gas

With almost 20 new natural gas projects slated to open this year alone in Louisiana and Texas, environmental health and justice activists in the region say the Biden administration's recent restoration of transparency provisions in the National Environmental Policy Act, rolled back by its predecessor, will provide a critical shield for them in their battle with the industry. (5/13/2022)

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Where abortion would remain accessible in a post-Roe South

The recent leak of a Supreme Court draft opinion showed that the justices have voted to overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 case that guaranteed the right to an abortion. If the draft stands, legal abortion would remain widely available in only two Southern states.

Ending subminimum wages for workers with disabilities

A number of states, including several in the South, are bucking the federal policy that allows companies to pay workers with certain disabilities less than the basic minimum wage of $7.25 an hour. The Biden administration recently took an initial step to address that pay disparity for tens of thousands of disabled workers nationwide, while a bill to end the practice is stalled in Congress.