Media for good trouble.
Liberation lives here.
Southern politics
The Jewish South is Black, too
The Leader of the Atlanta Jews of Color Council on why Black and Jewish communities must keep working together.
He thought he could be a 'good' cop. Now, he's working to end policing as we know it.
Randy Shrewsberry used to cringe when his fellow cops made racist comments—until he realized his own actions, rooted in white supremacy, were worse.
Alabama taxpayers have paid $4 billion toward a policy that Governor Ivey refuses to bring home
States that have expanded Medicaid have seen a budget boon—not a loss, as conservatives have long warned. Why is Alabama still holding out?
The majority of Alabamians want Medicaid expansion
Uninsured, working Alabamians are forced to choose between their well-being and financial security. But politicians are holding out on an easy fix.
Arts & Soul
Freedom wasn't given—it was seized
Survivors of slavery share their experiences through Reconstruction in the new podcast series "Seizing Freedom" by Virginia Public Media and Witness Docs, featuring voiceover retellings of Black folks' courageous efforts to reconstruct life on their own terms.
'T-Pain was important because he was ours'
A Florida native on T-Pain's roots and impact. He looks and reminds you of a cousin. He feels like so many people I came across in Tallahassee.'
Review: One Night in Miami
What happens when four Black civil rights giants sit down together for one night? Culture writer and organizer Khayla Deans writes a loving ode to the struggles and intimacies of Black male friendship depicted in Regina King's 'One Night in Miami.'
This is damn sure not our grandparents' rhythm and blues
How did soulful rhythm and blues get so 'Heartless?' Marcus Dowling shows the evolution from spiritually-saturated and politically-oriented soul music to The Weeknd's Super Bowl success.
Race & Place
The old devil and the new details
Mab Segrest, veteran organizer and author of 'Memoir of a Race Traitor,' offers a long-view on right-wing militia organizing in the South and January's Capitol nsurrection.
White tears will never be the solution
White people have to learn to talk about racialized violence in a way that doesn't center their own guilt—and stop taking up valuable space for transformative action.
Consuming Blackness in 'progressive' West Virginia
A memory of a charity event that showcased just what's wrong about West Virginia progressives' ideas about race.
'Pure America': Eugenics past and present
Elizabeth Catte wrote the official takedown of J.D. Vance's Hillbilly Elegy, placing it in a tradition of whitewashed poverty porn. In her follow-up, she traces the history and influence of eugenics from her backyard across the country.
Long reads
Court fees and fines make voting near-impossible for ex-felons in Tennessee
'When you come to school, you forfeit your rights'
The obvious solution to Houston's housing crisis: 'Just cease all evictions'
'Go There Ready for War'—Militia Organizing in North Carolina in the Context of the Insurrection at the US Capitol
Knock on Wood: How Europe's wood pellet appetite fuels environmental racism in the South
Essays & Letters
MORE STORIES
The BAmazon Loss and the Road Ahead
What can union activists across the country take away from the high-profile defeat in the union vote at Amazon in Alabama?
The fall and rise of North Carolina's first Black school
C.S. Brown may no longer formally labeled a school for Blacks, but its at-risk students were mostly Black—a symbol of the story education data tell about our Black youth, recognized more for trouble than for promise.
Your frontlines lead our headlines.
In Arkansas, falling behind on rent could mean jail time
Only Arkansas permits criminal consequences for nonpayment of rent—and it has enforced the law during the pandemic. Now, some legislators want to revoke the statute.
Ending white supremacist violence will take all of us
A letter from Scalawag's Executive Director-Publisher: White supremacy is the reason that six Asian women and two others were murdered in Atlanta this week. It is the reason that Flint and Jackson don't have clean water. It is the reason Texas was without power during a deadly winter storm. It is the reason George Floyd […]
Texas' oldest Black university was built on a former plantation. Its students still fight a legacy of voter suppression.
Jayla Allen was her family's third generation to attend Prairie View A&M University. She inherited a battle for voting rights in Waller County extending before her grandfather's time at the Southeast Texas college.
POC-led. Women-run. Southern.
Rural Texans faced the same storm—with unique hardships
Last week's winter storm was brutal for the whole state, but rural Texans faced particular hardships, like distance from helpful neighbors. And newborn calves.
Let Black Art Tell It
Through music, art, and literature, these Black Southerners—past and present—are interrogating, re-imagining, and reviving our understanding of Southern survival.