Michael Corey Jenkins and Eddie Terrell Parker will bravely walk into a federal courtroom in Mississippi this week to face six former Rankin County law enforcement officers who tortured them for hours. A single bullet nearly silenced Jenkins’ voice forever. “This has been very hard for me, for us, this last year,” Jenkins said during […]
Mississippi
Posted inEnvironmental Justice
This Black Artist Is Using Farming to Heal Herself — and the Land
If you were to drive down Interstate 70 in St. Louis’ predominantly Black North Side today, you’d be greeted by a billboard with the phrase “Listen to your Elders.” Behind those words, a 1970s-era photo of Dail Chambers’ aunt and uncle, Mary and Dubell, illustrates one of the thorny realities of Black history and the […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
What a Black Mississippi Mom Is Doing to Save Her Son From the Legal System
Update: The charges against Quantavious Eason were dismissed by a Mississippi judge on Feb. 5, his attorney announced. A Mississippi mom is legally challenging a county’s youth court system after her 10-year-old son was detained for urinating in public. Like many elementary-school age students, Quantavious Eason could not hold his urine once the urge hit […]
Posted inRural Issues
How Black Rural Americans Navigate Internet Issues
This is the second story in Capital B’s “Disconnected: Rural Black America and the Digital Divide” project, which explores the disparate effects of broadband accessibility on Black Americans in the rural South. This project is made possible by a grant from The Center for Rural Strategies and Grist. You can read our first story, “Digital […]
Posted inRural Issues
Digital Redlining and the Black Rural South
This is the first story in Capital B’s “Disconnected: Rural Black America and the Digital Divide” project, which explores the disparate effects of broadband accessibility on Black Americans in the rural South. This project is made possible by a grant from The Center for Rural Strategies and Grist. Aaron Sankin, investigative reporter for The Markup, […]
Posted inElections, Politics & Policy
Black Voters Flex Political Power in Some Key States
Tyronne Walker is working overtime to let Black voters know what’s on the line in Louisiana. The Urban League of Louisiana and its partners recently hosted a statewide registration day for Black and brown voters. Walker told Capital B that he and his colleagues’ primary goal is “to position [Black communities] to show their collective […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Policing
Mississippi Police Department Faces a $400M Federal Lawsuit for Shooting Man in Jaw
A Mississippi man who barely survived being shot in the mouth while six white Rankin County police officers held him and his friend during an alleged drug raid has filed a $400 million federal lawsuit. Michael Corey Jenkins, 32, and Eddie T. Parker, 35, both Black, say their civil rights were violated on Jan. 24 […]
Posted inEnvironmental Justice, Unsafe Water
Record Investment Merely Scratches the Surface of Fixing Black America’s Water Crisis
Gwendolyn Reed-Davis recalls living without running water during the holiday season last year, merely months after a water crisis left Jackson, Mississippi, residents struggling to bathe, cook, and flush their toilets. The mother of 12 says the city’s years-long struggle has harmed public health and threatened the development of a whole generation of children. Since […]
Posted inPolitics & Policy
Jackson Residents Join Fight to Stop Law That Strips Away Voting Power
Mere days after the NAACP sued Mississippi state officials over two new laws the civil rights organization says are discriminatory, three Jackson residents are following a similar course, arguing in a lawsuit filed on Monday that one of the laws is a violation of the Mississippi Constitution. “State lawmakers have said that this takeover of […]
Posted inEnvironmental Justice, Extreme Weather
Want to Better Prepare Black Communities for Tornadoes? Erode the Income Gap.
The severity of the recent network of tornadoes that practically erased a majority Black rural town in Mississippi off the map would’ve leveled any community in its path — but the region’s high amount of mobile homes, low access to information networks, and poor insurance rates created a perfect storm. “Tornadic storms will continue to […]