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It’s no secret that journalism is in financial trouble. Newsrooms all across the country are downsizing, even closing, and leaving news deserts in their wake. Investigative reporting is time-consuming and expensive, and so even though this kind of journalism is one of the most important tools we have to keep watch over people in power, it’s often among the first to be cut as remaining newsrooms struggle to stay afloat.

But ProPublica is different, thanks to readers like you. As a nonprofit newsroom, we don’t depend on advertising or short-term investors. We depend largely on donations from individuals, and we’ve grown significantly over the past few years. We’re able to help fill undeniable gaps in deep-dive journalism that have been left open all over the country. <[link removed]>

This month, ProPublica published a story <[link removed]> about a county in southern Virginia. Back in 2014, developers found graves in the woods as they were clearing a plot of land to expand a Microsoft data center The county, its consultants and Microsoft worked together to make sure they’d be able to dig up the graves and relocate them with minimal hold up or additional expense, and without directly reaching out to family members. This happened despite archaeologists’ findings that all the people buried there were Black and members of a community of landowners who farmed tobacco in the wake of the Civil War and Reconstruction — exactly the sort of historical landmark the National Register seeks to protect.

Those efforts worked. Today, the remains from that cemetery (37 graves in all) are reburied in four tightly packed $500 cemetery plots one town over, and Microsoft’s data center stands in the original cemetery’s place. The living family members, who were never directly notified by the county or Microsoft (but who were easily located by ProPublica), didn’t find out about the relocation until we told them, seven years after the fact. Despite federal and state regulations intended to protect these historic sites, private companies often wield the most power in deciding their fate. Agencies like the Army Corps of Engineers, who signed off on the Microsoft data center, have faced repeated criticism for failing to engage with affected communities on potential damage to cultural sites.

As a reader of ProPublica, you know how important it is for journalists to have the freedom, resources and ability to pursue stories that shine a light on miscarriages of justice, corruption and other types of wrongdoing. Donate today and help us continue to investigate injustice wherever we find it. <[link removed]> Your gift will help power one of the largest teams of investigative journalists in the country, digging into issues across the nation and holding people in power accountable, wherever they are.

Thanks so much, Jill Shepherd Proud ProPublican <[link removed]>

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