Reproductive justice pioneer Loretta Ross on strategies for the post-Roe South

MacArthur "genius award" winner Loretta Ross helped launch the reproductive justice movement and co-founded SisterSong, a Georgia-based nonprofit that works to improve systems impacting the reproductive lives of marginalized communities. Facing South spoke with the professor and public intellectual about conditions post-Roe — and how Southern legislatures that oppose abortion can make parenting easier. (1/26/2023)

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VOICES: Southern legislatures must dismantle poverty traps for disabled people

The poverty rate for people with disabilities is more than double that of our nondisabled counterparts, and the disparity is being driven by state policy choices that force us into institutions unnecessarily and allow employers to pay us subminimum wages. Some Southern states have already embraced reforms, and others should act now. (1/24/2023)

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From the Archives: Right to Life: The Southern Strategy

To mark what would have been the 50th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion, we are lifting up a 1977 Southern Exposure report delving into the backlash against abortion rights that was already taking shape across the region. (6/6/2022)

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Criminalizing voters in Southern states

Republican state lawmakers across the South are creating harsh new penalties for even minor voting infractions — an effort that advocates worry could curb the surge in electoral participation the region has experienced in recent years.

Save the date to celebrate Southern Exposure!

Save the date for a celebration of the 50th anniversary of Southern Exposure, the award-winning journal and magazine produced by the Institute for Southern Studies.

Events will be held March 11 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, in collaboration with the University of North Carolina's Southern Historical Collection and North Carolina Collection, and the Center for the Study of the American South and its affiliate programs. Attendees will have the chance to interact with the soon-to-be-unveiled Southern Exposure Digital Archive and other historical material related to people and movements connected to the magazine, as well as discuss the legacy of Southern Exposure and its lessons for today's struggles for justice in the South.

To stay informed about the celebration and receive an official invitation, sign up here. Hope to see you there!

NC lets Duke Energy build new climate pollution sources

The North Carolina Utilities Commission's newly adopted plan to limit Duke Energy's climate-disrupting pollution calls for new gas-burning plants — even though they leak methane, a greenhouse gas that in the short term is even more potent than carbon. Forty-five scientists recently called Duke's planned gas expansion "entirely indefensible from a climate and public health perspective," and advocates vowed to fight the proposed plants.