History teacher Valanna White found herself in a quandary last fall when an administrator at her Tennessee high school pulled her syllabus for Advanced Placement U.S. Government. The course is designed to give students an analytical perspective on American government and its political system. But it was the unit on civil rights and civil liberties […]
racism
Posted inClimate Change, Environmental Justice, Partner Content
Long burdened by environmental racism, activists in Memphis are turning the tide
This story was originally published by The 19th. First, the butterflies disappeared. Then, the family dog died; and then the neighbors did, too. But Marquita Bradshaw’s biggest loss of those adolescent days was probably her great-grandmother. Susie Hall died in 1995 after developing uterine and kidney cancers. “We lost our matriarch. … She was the […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Policing
Police Shot Handcuffed Black Man in the Face in Mississippi, Attorney Says
BRAXTON, Miss. — A 32-year-old Black man came close to death last month when he was shot in the mouth while handcuffed during a drug raid in this small, predominately white village, according to an attorney for his family. Six white sheriff’s deputies falsely accused him and a friend of selling drugs and “dating white […]
Posted inClimate Change, Environmental Justice
Black Americans Are Moving to Phoenix in Historic Numbers. Few Are Finding a Better Life.
This story was produced in partnership with High Country News. In late October 2012, the 80 mph winds of Hurricane Sandy pelted the tiny suburb of Pennington, New Jersey, where Brian Watson worked. Watson’s job as a fraud analyst for Bank of America Merrill Lynch required him to be on call 24/7 despite the severe […]
Posted inHealth, Health Equity
The Medical System Has Failed Black Americans for Centuries. Could Reparations be the Answer?
This story published in collaboration with Vox, part of a series on reparations. In 1972, two social workers set Debra Blackmon’s sterilization in motion. The primary diagnosis in her medical records read: mental retardation severe. Soon, Blackmon would undergo a total abdominal hysterectomy, a procedure, sanctioned by the local government, to remove her uterus and […]
Posted inEnvironmental Justice
The Quiet Toll of Oil Drilling on Black Los Angeles
When Dominic Gibbs’ family moved to the Harbor City neighborhood of Los Angeles in the 1990s, the young child had a lingering question for his mother: What is that massive 20-foot-tall pump next to our house? “I always think about when I first saw the pump, because I thought it was just something that happened […]
Posted inEducation, HBCUs
An HBCU Student’s Viral Classroom Arrest Sparks Alarm and Anger on Campus
Distressing cellphone video of police officers arresting a student at a North Carolina HBCU following a verbal altercation with her professor has reignited debate about the use of law enforcement in education and has some people wondering: Where are Black students safe? Police at Winston-Salem State University arrested the student in front of her class […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Public Safety
New Laws Protecting Sexual Assault Survivors Don’t Bring Justice for All
There has been a gradual wave of reform efforts across the country granting sexual assault survivors more time to sue their alleged abusers. With New York’s Adult Survivor Act taking effect last month, about half of states have either eliminated or expanded their statute of limitations on sexual offenses, including five states just this year. […]
Posted inEnvironmental Justice, Extreme Weather
How Natural Disasters Create Voting Crises
Voting has often been inconvenient for residents of Florida’s Dunbar community. For decades, they fought to get an early-voting site in their Gulf Coast neighborhood. It finally came to fruition ahead of the 2020 election, but now, just two years later, that polling site has shut down. The story is similar for many in this […]
Posted inMoney, Wealth Gap
California’s Reparations Plan Exposes Deep Divides in Black Communities
With a packed house behind him, Milton Hall, a Los Angeles Mid-City Neighborhood Council representative, approached the microphone. Under his breath, he lamented about missing the beginning of his golf game to attend this meeting, a gathering of California’s reparations task force for descendants of American slavery. The task force is the first of its […]