NEW IBERIA, Louisiana — On a humid September afternoon, wedged between high stalks of sugarcane and old tractors, Jamie Davis felt right at home. He had traveled 170 miles from Waterproof, Louisiana, a 91% Black town that’s home to 576 people, to New Iberia, a bigger city, on another Black-owned farm. There, Davis and a […]
Aallyah Wright
Aallyah Wright is the rural issues reporter for Capital B. From farmers to land fights to health care and jobs, her reporting explores the issues that matter most while celebrating culture and joy.
Follow her on Bluesky @aallyahpatrice.bsky.social and Instagram @journalistaallyah.
Posted inPolitics & Policy, Voting
The Push to Reach Forgotten Black Voters Ahead of the Midterm Elections
Kamora Greggs returned to her college campus with voting on her mind. She’d just visited her home in Jackson, Mississippi, about three hours away, when her mom encouraged her to exercise her right. “And don’t have anybody change your mind about what you want to do,” Greggs recalled. As a first time voter, the 19-year-old […]
Posted inBlack Farmers, Politics & Policy, Rural Issues
A Key Voice for Farmers of Color at USDA Has Gone Silent Under Trump
Sarah Bell had completed only one year of her two-year term on a federal committee to help farmers of color before she learned the work would be “on pause.” In 2024, Bell, an Asian American farmer in the South, was one of 15 appointees on the Advisory Committee on Minority Farmers. The committee was established […]
Posted inPolitics & Policy, Voting
Black Women Are Sounding the Alarm About Voting Rights and America’s Future
Is the nation – from institutions to lawmakers — investing in the needs of Black women voters? A new, nonpartisan poll by The Highland Project and brilliant corners Research and Strategies that surveyed 700 participants found the answer is “overwhelmingly no.” The report focused on what researchers define as “the fulfillment gap,” whether Black women […]
Posted inNews
Federal Government May Look Into Nolan Wells’ Case, Trump Says
The family of Nolan Wells’ renewed their call for the Department of Justice to conduct an independent investigation into the death of the teenager who was found dead on July 6, two days after he took a boating trip with friends on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. At an Oct. 5 press conference, Christine Wells-Wonsley reminded […]
Posted inHistory, Transportation
What 9/11 Took From Her, She’s Now Giving to the Next Generation of Black Women Pilots
Nia Gilliam proclaimed she’d never fly again after 9/11. The morning of Sept. 11, 2001, felt normal. The Atlantic Coast Airlines plane had no engine problems or mechanical issues. Passengers were seated. The 25-year-old co-pilot and her superior, Capt. Shye Gilad, were ready to depart Newark Liberty International Airport for Boston. The bright blue skies […]
Posted inEconomic Development, Politics & Policy
A Data Center Promises Jobs in This Black Town, but Residents Aren’t Convinced
CLARKSDALE, Mississippi — Rumors of a potential data center had loomed over Voneshay Walker like a cloud for months. She’d heard the whispers and seen reports of other centers popping up in small towns across the South. She didn’t expect it to hit so close to home. Walker is a native of Tutwiler, Mississippi, a […]
Posted inPolitics & Policy
The Battle Over Black Representation in a White Mississippi County
DeSOTO COUNTY, Mississippi. — Hester Jackson-McCray witnessed the beginning of the economic boom in this Mississippi Delta county when she moved south from Chicago in 1999. Year after year, she has watched the county attract newcomers and grow culturally and economically, cotton fields giving way to subdivisions and shopping centers. Other Black families like hers […]
Posted inCourts, History, Rural Issues
How One Woman Landed in Jail Over a Fight to Protect Her Family’s Land
Jennine Labuzan spent two weeks in federal custody in June — shuttled from her residence in Georgia to Tennessee to Mississippi — after refusing a judge’s order to sign away more than 1,300 acres of land she says her family has owned for generations. Her arrest and release came after a legal battle she never […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Politics & Policy
How Jackson’s Former Mayor Went From Progressive Star to Guilty Plea
Jackson, Mississippi, resident and social justice organizer Danyelle Holmes saw up close the scrutiny and efforts by the state’s top leaders to remove her friend and former Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba from office during his tenure. Lumumba consistently fought back against lawmakers and the governor for refusing to fix the city’s crumbling infrastructure, she said, […]
