Stories
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- Strengthening Democracy & Voting Rights
First-time voters at historically Black Alabama university react to Trump’s win
On the night of the presidential election, Kayla McCray felt anxious. The contest between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris was the first federal election in which the 20-year-old Alabama State University (ASU) student had ever voted. The historically Black university (HBCU) was holding a watch party on campus. McCray peeked in…
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- Strengthening Democracy & Voting Rights
Director of new SPLC Georgia state office ‘there to listen,’ forge bonds
The town of Sandersville sits near the center of Georgia, its rolling hills home to vast ancient deposits of the soft, white powder called kaolin. It is also the hometown of another local find, Yterenickia Bell, who in May launched the new Georgia state office of the Southern Poverty Law Center. While born of the…
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- Dismantling White Supremacy
- Strengthening Democracy & Voting Rights
Received a racist post-election text? Report it here
Summary of Incident & Harm: Post-election, many young Black people, Latinos and LGBTQ+ individuals have been targeted with hateful and racist text messages. We strongly condemn this bigotry and harassment. Rest assured, the SPLC has launched a rapid response investigation to find the source of these attacks. If you have received such a message, we…
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- Eliminating Poverty and Economic Inequality
Community advocates influence Gulfport, Mississippi, development plans
The city hearing in Gulfport, Mississippi, seemed to include all the elements of responsive local government. There was the full, seven-member City Council sitting at a semicircular dais in the front of the chamber. There were citizens from across Mississippi’s second-largest city filling the rows of seats. There was a city-contracted attorney and a consultant…
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- Strengthening Democracy & Voting Rights
SPLC organizers spend last hours of election getting out the vote in Georgia
In the video: SPLC President and CEO Margaret Huang and Yterenickia Bell, the SPLC’s state director for Georgia, canvassed an apartment complex in Mableton, Georgia, on Election Day. Despite millions of people voting early in Georgia, there were still millions of voters remaining on Election Day who could vote but had not despite the polls…
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- Strengthening Democracy & Voting Rights
Balloting goes smoothly as millions of Americans go to the polls
Frances Kennedy picked up her granddaughter, a college student, at 5 a.m. and drove her two hours to make sure she voted in her hometown of Atlanta. Kennedy, a longtime Atlanta resident, had voted early. Her granddaughter, a student at Alabama State University in Montgomery, was voting for the first time and had waited until…
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- Strengthening Democracy & Voting Rights
Michelle Obama headlines nonpartisan Georgia rally to turn out first-time voters
Rows and rows of shiny black charter coaches and bright yellow school buses lined the lot outside Atlanta’s Gateway Center Arena on Oct. 29. Their passengers, Georgia high school and college students, spilled out onto the street, forming a line of hundreds mixed in with locals and visitors of all ages who had come to…
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- Dismantling White Supremacy
Summit encourages faith leaders to challenge white Christian nationalism
Huddled in an elevator at the Southern Poverty Law Center headquarters in Montgomery, Alabama, stood a group of people who had attended an interfaith summit that day on countering hate and election-related violence ahead of November’s presidential contest. The group had assembled to learn about the Christian white nationalist movement and its influence on the…
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- Strengthening Democracy & Voting Rights
Indigenous people face voting obstacles from past and ongoing discrimination
Lori Wise and her husband moved from her home state of Oklahoma to Georgia in 1999, but she did not learn of her paternal Ponca Nation ancestry until 2018, when she discovered the identity of her biological parents and met her biological father for the first time in Oklahoma. The following year, Wise met the…
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- Strengthening Democracy & Voting Rights
Newbern, Alabama, seats Town Council, looks to move past years-long legal fight
For the first time in four years, the town of Newbern, Alabama, has a legitimately appointed and approved government, with the town’s first Black mayor in its 170-year history at its head. On Oct. 27, Alabama Fourth Circuit Court Judge Marvin Wiggins swore in five new council members to the Newbern Town Council. The five…
