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 […]
Alabama
Posted inEnvironmental Justice
Feds Resolve Civil Rights Complaint Brought by Rural Black Alabama Community
On a Sunday in early October, 16 people, mainly elders, met under Timothy Williams’ gazebo. The ground was still soaked from a recent downpour in rural Alabama. It has become a routine gathering in their historic Black community over the past six years as they’ve battled through a flooding crisis brought on by a highway […]
Posted inEnvironmental Justice, Partner Content
Small Town’s Trash Policy Has Left Black Moms Criminally Charged Over Unpaid Garbage Fees
This story was originally published by Inside Climate News. CHICKASAW, Ala.—Shaquala Jackson’s three-year-old daughter screamed. A rat was scurrying across the bathroom floor. “I grabbed the kids and ran out of the house,” she said. Jackson said that was the day she knew she and her three young children could no longer live in Chickasaw, a […]
Posted inClimate Change, Environmental Justice, Rural Issues
Black Communities Left to Sink as Insurance Companies Abandon the South
On Sept. 29, Pastor Timothy Williams will lose the property insurance coverage for his home in rural Elba, Alabama. It’s another mark on a long list of recent letdowns for him in the aftermath of a persistent flooding crisis born by the expansion of a highway next to his home. Since the state raised and […]
Posted inPolitics & Policy, Rural Issues
Newbern’s First Black Mayor Won in the Courts, but the Fight Is Far From Over
NEWBERN, Ala. — The sunrays beamed on Patrick Braxton’s forehead as he raised his right hand and placed his left on a Bible, held by his wife, Freda. He stood confidently, ready to execute his oath of office for all to see. That moment — on an early August afternoon — felt so familiar yet […]
Posted inEnvironmental Justice
A Solution to Alabama’s Sewage Problem Is in Danger
When it rains in Alabama’s Black Belt, poop gurgles up from the earth. A new federal grant program wants to stop it from happening. It is a crisis that has long roots dating back to slavery, and has been the focus of Black Alabama activists for generations. Last year, the Justice Department determined that the […]
Posted inNews, Rural Issues, Voting
After Years of Litigation, First Black Mayor in Rural Alabama Town Gets to Serve
Patrick Braxton is overwhelmed with gratitude. He’s been juggling a yearslong legal battle to serve as the lawful mayor of his hometown, Newbern, Alabama. After years of harassment, his rural town enters a new chapter: Its first Black mayor will finally get to serve. Braxton will be reinstated as mayor of Newbern, according to a […]
Posted inIncarceration
Alabama Outlawed Slavery in Prisons. Is It Still Happening?
The day after Trayveka Stanley’s mother died, she was devastated. She was having trouble coping with her loss and needed time to grieve, but her plea for a day off from her prison job at Julia Tutwiler Prison for Women in Wetumpka, Alabama, didn’t persuade its officials. The 32-year-old was still required to show up […]
Posted inEnvironmental Justice, Infrastructure, Partner Content, Rural Issues
How Alabama Turned to Restrictive Deed Covenants to Ward Off Flooding Claims From Black Residents
This story was originally published by Inside Climate News. SHILOH COMMUNITY, Ala.—Their land is bound forever. The deeds of three homeowners — Pastor Timothy Williams, Aretha Wright, and Page Jones — all living in the historically Black Shiloh community of south Alabama, tell the tale. Restrictive covenants attached to their deeds limit the ability of current and […]
Posted inEverything's Political, Politics & Policy
Everything’s Political, Including the Name of a School
Welcome back to Everything’s Political, Capital B’s weekly news, culture, and politics newsletter! In this edition, learn about two Virginia schools renamed after Confederate generals, a Texas county’s fight for a fair voting map, the killing of a Black airman in Florida, a Black mayor’s fight to govern his Alabama town, and the Trump campaign’s […]