Last summer, Elon Musk quietly transformed a portion of a South Memphis, Tennessee, community established by a group of formerly enslaved people in 1863 into what the world’s wealthiest man called “Colossus” — the planet’s most powerful supercomputer. The artificial intelligence venture turned an old manufacturing plant into a powerful 550-acre supercomputer designed to train […]
Adam Mahoney
Adam Mahoney is the climate and environment reporter at Capital B. He can be reached by email at adam.mahoney@capitalbnews.org, on Bluesky, and on X at @AdamLMahoney.
Posted inBlack Migration, Criminal Justice, Incarceration, News, Policing
Black Undocumented Migrants Face Far Higher Deportation Rates
One of the most underreported aspects of life for Black undocumented migrants can be summed up in one statistic: They’re deported at a rate four times more often than their numbers would suggest, according to an analysis of federal data by the Black Alliance for Just Immigration. The analysis showed that while Black migrants make […]
Posted inEducation, History
The Forgotten Girls Who Desegregated New Orleans Before Ruby Bridges
This is the first story in our series chronicling the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. In November 1960, three 6-year-old Black girls climbed 18 steps into history, forever changing the face of American education and democracy. While Ruby Bridges became a household name for integrating William Frantz Elementary School in New Orleans, Gail Etienne, Leona […]
Posted inCulture, Politics & Policy
For Some Black Angelenos, ICE Raids Reopen the Wound of Displacement
When federal immigration agents swept through Los Angeles’ Fashion District, Boyle Heights, and Pico-Union neighborhoods last week, arresting dozens of migrants in coordinated raids, Bryant Odega was transported back into his childhood memories. In elementary school, Odega’s first airport visit was to watch his father, an immigrant from Nigeria, get deported back to his birth […]
Posted inEnvironmental Justice, Extreme Weather
FEMA Cuts Hit as 2025 Hurricane Forecast Predicts Brutal Storm Season
As the temperatures rose across Louisiana during Memorial Day weekend, the heat index, a measure of air temperature and humidity, approached triple digits. Bayou State residents seeking relief from the extreme temperatures turned up their fans and air conditioners, pushing an aging electrical grid to the breaking point. And by nightfall, more than 100,000 people […]
Posted inHistory
Stolen Black Remains Return Home After 150 Years in European Vault
Underneath oak trees and Spanish moss from Texas to the Carolina coasts, the remains of Black Americans lay in unmarked graves across roadside cemeteries and backyards. While some graves now remain hidden beneath highways and shopping malls, others have been stripped of their dignity in an even more insidious way. Nowhere is this more painfully […]
Posted inEnvironmental Justice, Extreme Weather
Why Are Black Neighborhoods Underwater? Science Points to the Wealthy.
In January, a relentless wave of wildfires tore through Los Angeles, reducing a historic Black community to ash and claiming 29 lives. Later that month, a rare winter storm brought heavy snow to the Southeast and the Gulf Coast. Eleven people perished. Then, in March, more than 100 tornadoes ripped through the South in two […]
Posted inExtreme Weather
Sirens Failed. FEMA Didn’t Show Up. Now Black St. Louis Recovers from Deadly Tornadoes Alone.
The sky turned an eerie green over St. Louis on May 16. Rapper and activist Antoine White, better known as T-Dubb-O, recognized the ominous hue immediately. Having family in the heart of Tornado Alley in Tennessee, he knew what was coming. With his wife and son beside him after a school field day lunch in […]
Posted inAir Pollution, Environmental Justice, Politics & Policy
Trump Is Giving 500+ Plants a Pass to Pollute More. Is Your Home at Risk?
Imagine if the billion-dollar companies that run oil refineries or chemical plants could ask the government for permission to spew more pollution into the air with less hassle than it takes to renew your driver’s license. That’s now a reality. In recent weeks, the Trump administration has created a shortcut for fossil fuel and chemical […]
Posted inHousing, Politics & Policy
Black Renters Could Be Displaced by Historic Affordable Housing Cuts
Elisha Fye Jr. grew up hearing his father’s stories of the Jim Crow South. There, Elisa Sr. was born on a plantation in 1918 and one of 14 children in a family of sharecroppers who toiled all year for just $200 and a share of the crops in Vidalia, Georgia. After a violent run-in with […]