Stories
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- Eliminating Poverty and Economic Inequality
Georgia teen with dyslexia gets education assistance, thanks to SPLC lawsuit
Trinity is a lot like most 16-year-old girls. The rising high school sophomore speed-texts with her friends about everything and nothing and looks forward to the day when she can drive a car. When she is old enough, she wants to be an esthetician. What Trinity has never confided in most of her close friends…
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- Dismantling White Supremacy
A Black Florida community preserves its legacy through an oral history project
When she first heard the clatter outside her house in Royal, Florida, Etta Johnson Huff didn’t think much of it. At 70, the proud woman who lives on the same land acquired by her ancestors after the Civil War is not easily ruffled. But when she looked out her window that morning this past February, what…
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- Strengthening Democracy & Voting Rights
Newbern, Alabama, mayor officially reinstated after judge signs settlement order
Patrick Braxton, the first Black mayor of Newbern, Alabama, was reinstated to office this week after a federal judge signed a court order authorizing a settlement agreement that ends Braxton’s lawsuit against the town for improperly ousting him from office. “Plaintiff Braxton is the lawful mayor of Newbern effective the date of this order, and…
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- Eliminating Poverty and Economic Inequality
Students from SPLC’s Youth Leadership Institute win college scholarships
One afternoon in May, Isabella Dennison and Madison Thompson received a message from the manager of the Civil Rights Memorial Center (CRMC), Lauren Blanding. Could they join her for dinner that evening? The guests included staffers from the Southern Poverty Law Center, which built and sponsors the CRMC at its Montgomery, Alabama, headquarters. The two…
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- Strengthening Democracy & Voting Rights
SPLC launches Alabama Advocacy Institute to train, inspire grassroots activists
Castleberry is a town of 486 people in south-central Alabama where strawberries grow big and sweet. It is where life took Alesia Thomas, a Black military veteran, when her best friend needed her help, and it is where the Indiana native intends to grow old. The community known as Chestnut lies about 50 miles away,…
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- Dismantling White Supremacy
Teacher fights Florida anti-LGBTQ+ law, says ‘state can’t deny my existence’
When Katie Wood interviewed for the position of math teacher at Lennard High School in Hillsborough County, Florida, in 2021, she told the principal that she was a transgender woman and wanted to work only in a school that would make her feel welcome. “I told her that as a transgender woman, it’s really important…
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- Strengthening Democracy & Voting Rights
Georgia Voter Challenges: Know Your Rights
Background Since the passage of Senate Bill 202 in 2021, voter challenges against Georgia citizens have run rampant. Fortunately, most of the challenges have been dismissed. But most recently, Governor Kemp signed Senate Bill 189 which makes changes to Georgia’s voter challenge process and increases the likelihood that county election boards will sustain more voter…
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- Strengthening Democracy & Voting Rights
Ousted Black Alabama mayor will return to office under settlement agreement
Editor’s note: This is the third part of a four-part series. Read previous entries here: Part 1. Part 2. After almost four years of legal wrangling, rekeyed locks, dueling town councils, backroom intrigue and viral media coverage, the first Black man to become mayor of Newbern, Alabama, is a judge’s signature away from finally serving the remainder of…
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- Strengthening Democracy & Voting Rights
The South’s Got Now | Decidimos campaign spotlights power of every vote
Black voters in Caddo Parish, Louisiana, were outraged when a state judge ruled last December that their favored candidate for sheriff, Henry Whitehorn, had to submit to a third election after he won a runoff by one vote and a recount confirmed his one-vote margin of victory. Throwing out the election results particularly stung because…
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- Dismantling White Supremacy
- News
Descendants of last slave ship arriving in US share history with students
Earlier this spring, a group of college students from Auburn University, Chicago’s Governors State University and members of the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Auburn traveled by boat to a narrow stretch of the Mobile River, just north of the Mobile Bay Delta in Alabama. Along with them were a journalism professor and a handful…
