This is the first story in Capital B’s “Disconnected: Rural Black America and the Digital Divide” project, which explores the disparate effects of broadband accessibility on Black Americans in the rural South. This project is made possible by a grant from The Center for Rural Strategies and Grist. Aaron Sankin, investigative reporter for The Markup, […]
Mississippi
Posted inElections, Politics & Policy
Black Voters Flex Political Power in Some Key States
Tyronne Walker is working overtime to let Black voters know what’s on the line in Louisiana. The Urban League of Louisiana and its partners recently hosted a statewide registration day for Black and brown voters. Walker told Capital B that he and his colleagues’ primary goal is “to position [Black communities] to show their collective […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Policing
Mississippi Police Department Faces a $400M Federal Lawsuit for Shooting Man in Jaw
A Mississippi man who barely survived being shot in the mouth while six white Rankin County police officers held him and his friend during an alleged drug raid has filed a $400 million federal lawsuit. Michael Corey Jenkins, 32, and Eddie T. Parker, 35, both Black, say their civil rights were violated on Jan. 24 […]
Posted inEnvironmental Justice, Unsafe Water
Record Investment Merely Scratches the Surface of Fixing Black America’s Water Crisis
Gwendolyn Reed-Davis recalls living without running water during the holiday season last year, merely months after a water crisis left Jackson, Mississippi, residents struggling to bathe, cook, and flush their toilets. The mother of 12 says the city’s years-long struggle has harmed public health and threatened the development of a whole generation of children. Since […]
Posted inPolitics & Policy
Jackson Residents Join Fight to Stop Law That Strips Away Voting Power
Mere days after the NAACP sued Mississippi state officials over two new laws the civil rights organization says are discriminatory, three Jackson residents are following a similar course, arguing in a lawsuit filed on Monday that one of the laws is a violation of the Mississippi Constitution. “State lawmakers have said that this takeover of […]
Posted inEnvironmental Justice, Extreme Weather
Want to Better Prepare Black Communities for Tornadoes? Erode the Income Gap.
The severity of the recent network of tornadoes that practically erased a majority Black rural town in Mississippi off the map would’ve leveled any community in its path — but the region’s high amount of mobile homes, low access to information networks, and poor insurance rates created a perfect storm. “Tornadic storms will continue to […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Rasheem Carter’s Death Shows the Fault Lines of Jim Crow Still Run Through Mississippi
The investigation into the killing of Tiffany Carter’s son sheds light on a rigid pattern in which Black Americans find themselves at odds with the very institutions they’re supposed to trust. While Rasheem Carter’s death wasn’t the result of officer-involved violence — and while there are many unknowns about what happened — the case has […]
Posted inPolitics & Policy
The History of White Lawmakers Trying to Take Over Mississippi’s Predominately Black Capital
Arekia Bennett-Scott didn’t expect her hometown to be thrust into the national spotlight just months after the water crisis in Jackson, Mississippi, resurfaced tensions over how state officials treat the majority-Black city. Yet, residents in the Democratic-led capital are now pushing back against efforts by white Republican state officials to gain more power over the […]
Posted inPolitics & Policy
The History of White Lawmakers Trying to Take Over Mississippi’s Predominantly Black Capital
Arekia Bennett-Scott didn’t expect her hometown to be thrust into the national spotlight just months after the water crisis in Jackson, Mississippi, resurfaced tensions over how state officials treat the majority-Black city. Yet, residents in the Democratic-led capital are now pushing back against efforts by white Republican state officials to gain more power over the […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Policing
‘I Was on My Knees, Handcuffed’: Black Man Shot By Mississippi Police Tells His Story
JACKSON, Miss. — Michael Corey Jenkins held his neck, covered in white gauze bandages, as he struggled to form words. He wanted to explain the violent abuse he endured at the hands of deputies from the Rankin County Sheriff’s Office last month. “I was on my knees, handcuffed, and he was standing over me,” Jenkins […]