SELMA, Alabama — On a sunny, humid summer afternoon, Willie Palmer Jr. gathered his cows under a tree for feeding time. He watched as they roamed the grounds, passing by a slew of vehicles, a shed, and barn on his 20-acre property. As the animals feasted, Palmer stood quietly for a moment, taking in the […]
Alabama
Posted inEconomic Development, Environmental Justice, Politics & Policy
From Mississippi to Maryland, Black Communities Are Taking On Big Tech
When word spread through Bessemer, Alabama, earlier this year that a tech giant was eyeing hundreds of pine-covered acres at the city’s edge, Benard Simelton’s phone wouldn’t stop ringing. The longtime NAACP leader had fielded calls about toxic air and shuttered steel mills before, but this, he said, was new to him. At first, the […]
Posted inElections, Politics & Policy
Black Alabama Mayor Once Blocked by White Town Leaders Wins Reelection
NEWBERN, Ala. — On a quiet, sunny morning, Gabrielle Cook and her 20-year-old son Mark Cabil walked into their town hall to cast their ballots in an election that would decide the future of their rural Alabama town. For the first time in Newbern’s history, the citizens of this majority-Black town got to participate directly […]
Posted inEnvironmental Justice, Land Pollution, Partner Content, Unsafe Water
Decades of Water Neglect Pushed This Alabama Activist Into Politics
Just last year, Carletta Davis had the ear of the White House. In July 2024, she traveled from her hometown of Prichard, Alabama, to Washington, D.C., to attend the Biden administration’s first environmental justice summit. It was a celebration of the nearly four years of work by the administration to propel forward on a federal […]
Posted inPolitics & Policy, Voting
The Voting Rights Act Turns 60. Its Future Has Never Looked More Fragile.
Khadidah Stone will never forget the day in 2023 she learned that the U.S. Supreme Court upheld voting rights in her home state of Alabama. She was in a store when her phone buzzed, flooded with messages. “I was standing in the aisle crying,” she recalled. “And the guy at the front of the store […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Policing
Jabari Peoples Was Killed by Police. His Family Wants The Truth.
Jabari Latrell Peoples is described by his parents as a college student who “wanted to do too many things,” and was “dedicated to all his friends and all his family.” But it has been more than two weeks since his parents last heard his voice. The 18-year-old was killed by a Homewood, Alabama, police officer. […]
Posted inEnvironmental Justice
Rural Alabamians Lived With Poop-Filled Water for Decades. Trump Just Killed Plans For Relief.
Last April, Sherry Bradley and the Black Belt Unincorporated Wastewater Program helped rural Alabama resident Willie Perryman install a septic system in his home for the first time. Since his grandfather purchased the land and homestead more than six decades ago, none of the family’s properties had a proper disposal system for their waste. Thousands […]
Posted inClimate Change, Rural Issues
With Southern Utilities Quietly Dismantling DEI Programs, Black Households Pay the Price
When Chris Womack became the first Black CEO of Southern Co. in 2023, he called the company’s commitment to racial equity one of his guiding principles. His leadership of the third-largest private utility company in the world offered hope of fairer wages and more representative employment for thousands of Black employees and cleaner air and […]
Posted inPolitics & Policy
His Father Bankrupted the Klan. Now He’s Going to Congress to Continue the Fight.
It’s the start of a new political era in Alabama. In November, Shomari Figures, a Democrat, won his race against his Republican rival Caroleene Dobson to represent Alabama’s 2nd Congressional District, which had recently been redrawn to be majority Black after the U.S. Supreme Court decided in 2023 that the previous map likely violated the […]
Posted inElections, Politics & Policy
Black Voters Prepare for Backlash Ahead of Election Day
Activist Camille Bennett never backs down from a fight, despite her life being in danger. She’s endured racist and violent threats in rural Alabama, a part of a life she’s known since moving there as a teenager. She’s in Florence, her father’s hometown in the northwest part of the state known as The Shoals. In […]