Tens of thousands of women opted out of dinner dates and social gatherings Sunday to join a Zoom meeting that lasted into the wee Monday morning hours. All for one reason: Vice President Kamala Harris. Earlier that day, President Joe Biden dropped out of his reelection bid, endorsed Harris, and made way for her to […]
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 inRural Issues
5-Year Legal Battle Pays Off for Black Residents Who Sued Their City for Condemning Their Properties
Joseph Askew Sr. reveled in good news on a recent Sunday afternoon. The 77-year-old retiree has been in a legal battle to keep his historic properties from being destroyed by the city officials in his hometown, Kinston, North Carolina. Already, they’ve demolished some of his properties. He contends it’s because of his race because officials […]
Posted inEconomic Development, Transportation
Retirees Want Their Homes. This City Wants a Truck Stop.
Jacquenette Cottrell is scared, drained, and damn near bankrupt. For six years, she helped bankroll a lawsuit to stop construction of a Love’s Travel Stop in the middle of her neighborhood in Joliet, the third-largest city in Illinois. The area in question isn’t in the city limits, but an unincorporated area on the east side […]
Posted inBlack Businesses, Rural Issues
Dollar Stores Force Local Grocery Stores to Close. This Woman Opened One Anyway.
Marquitrice Mangham never imagined that she’d open a grocery store in her hometown of Webb, Mississippi. She left in the 1990s after high school. But in 2016, she inherited her family’s farm, splitting her time between the majority-Black town of fewer than 500 people in the rural Delta and her current home in Atlanta. Webb […]
Posted inRural Issues
This City Wants to Raze Black Properties, at the Cost of Generational Wealth.
On the east side of Kinston, North Carolina, historic buildings still bear the original architecture. Whether it’s on Queen Street, where formerly enslaved people became entrepreneurs, or Gordon Street, the neighborhood’s significance is clear. The rural North Carolina town was once known as a thriving tobacco and textile manufacturing industry and the birthplace of funk […]
Posted inHistory, Politics & Policy
Black Residents Battle Against Tennessee GOP’s Effort to Ban Reparations
The Rev. Earle J. Fisher, an activist and longtime resident of Memphis, Tennessee, is battling against yet another assault on Black economic and political progress by state Republicans. Since the murder of George Floyd in 2020, these efforts have ramped up, particularly in majority-Black Shelby County, the largest county in the state. Just last month, […]
Posted inEconomy, Money
How ‘Bidenomics’ May Not Be Adding Up for Some Black Americans
Tyler McFadden hoped a college degree would help her land a well-paying career in politics, but the 31-year-old didn’t expect it would come with hefty debt, poor credit, job instability, and anxiety, she says. After earning a bachelor’s degree in American Studies from George Washington University in 2014, McFadden became a bartender. With limited income, […]
Posted inRural Issues, Technology
Millions May Lose Internet Benefits if Lawmakers Don’t Act
For years, Leon Hudson struggled to get high quality home internet in the countryside of Selma, Alabama. If he wanted the service, he would “have to get a petition, go to the neighborhood, and get people to sign it for them to put their stuff there,” the 50-year-old recalled last fall about what internet service […]
Posted inEminent Domain, Money, Rural Issues
Rural Georgia Community Keeps Fighting Despite Railroad’s Win to Take Their Land
After a year-long legal battle with a railroad company over their land, landowners in a rural, majority-Black town in Georgia may be forced to sell their homes. In an initial decision on Monday, a Georgia Public Service Commission officer approved a proposed rail spur in Sparta. Several property owners had refused to sell the land […]
Posted inCulture
The Legacy of Black Cowgirls
Carolyn Carter proudly rides on her horse as she presents the American flag and Black American flag on opening day of one of the Black rodeos. It’s the 1980s, and the 20-something-year-old is at home in a sense. She’s steer decorating (steer wrestling for women) and barrel racing. The Oklahoma native fell in love with […]
