Scalawag – Reckoning with the South

Losing Nanny, inheriting her home, and surviving the first year

'I discovered quickly that I didn't know what it took to run a home, or even more, run my life.'

Apparently I'm my ancestor's wildest dreams. All I want is to be debt-free and to enjoy my existence. So far, it's not looking great.

by Maya Miller March 15, 2022March 15, 2022

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Southern politics

'Justifiable police homicide' and the ruse of American justice

"That's the way it's designed for Black and brown people. If they could, they would put us back in chattel slavery."

Samaria Rice, Da'Shaun Harrison, and Joy James critique legal studies and discuss the violence of the state in the wake of the U.S. Department of Justice's refusal to reopen investigation into the murder of Tamir Rice.

by Da'Shaun Harrison, Joy James and Samaria Rice

Anita Hill: Ketanji Brown Jackson's nomination to the Supreme Court signals historic change

"A Black woman on the Court has potential to expand the judicial imagination."

by Anita Hill

'Who keeps us safe?' An HBCU roundtable on violence and accountability

In the wake of a string of bomb threats at HBCU campuses nationwide, Scalawag hosted a live Twitter conversation with current and former students of Historically Black Colleges and Universities to discuss the nuances of student safety.

by Ko Bragg, Adam Harris, Da'Shaun Harrison, Noella Williams and Alexis Wray

No teacher? Call a cop, says Oklahoma governor

A new state law allows state employees to run public school classrooms with no experience or higher education requirements.

To combat the statewide teacher shortage, Governor Kevin Stitt has allowed state employees—police included—to fill in for substitute teachers. Unsurprisingly, not everyone is comfortable with that solution.

by Destinee Adams

Southern abortion funds that need your help

Reproductive justice organizations you should know about on the 49th anniversary of Roe v. Wade.

On the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the best way to support reproductive justice is by giving our time and resources to providers and mutual-aid organizations across the South.

by Scalawag Team

Arts & Soul

A queer and in-color geography: From Mumbai to West Virginia

'Another Appalachia: Coming Up Queer and Indian in a Mountain Place' is a graceful exploration of identity, community, and contradictions.

Southern author Anjali Enjeti interviews queer Indian-Appalachian writer Neema Avashia about her debut memoir and the need for intersectional literature about the Mountain South.

by Anjali Enjeti

Songs for a South underwater

Deep Blues: The music that carried folks through the Great Flood of 1927 to today.

In the wake of callous government responses to the 1927 Great Flood, Black musicians from the Delta produced their own deluge: An outpouring of songs testifying to the destruction wrought along the Mississippi. Nearly 100 years later, not much has changed.

by Sergio Lopez

'All my people come from the hills'

In celebration of bell hooks: Three poems from 'Appalachian Elegy: Poetry and Place.'

hooks was one of the rare folks who became an ancestor before death. Ahead of Black history month, these poems help us mourn her transition while celebrating her life.

by Alysia Nicole Harris

How radical feminist politics shaped one of ATL's most beloved neighborhoods

The history of Little Five Points' little feminist press.

Sojourner Truth Press was a radical women's print shop, steeped in the liberation movements of its time.

by Neesha Powell-Ingabire

Taken outside the changes

Jazz vocalist Nnenna Freelon tackles Black love over space, time, and music on her latest album, 'Time Traveler'

Six-time Grammy-nominated jazz vocalist and Durham philanthropist Nnenna Freelon on grief and growing through the changes on her latest album "Time Traveler."

by Julian Reid

Race & Place

grief & other loves

Scalawag's "grief & other loves" is a reckoning and an invitation. As the late bell hooks wrote in All About Love: Other Visions, "To be loving is to be open to grief, to be touched by sorrow, even sorrow that is unending."

by Scalawag Team and Scalawag Editors

Life and Death in Strawberry Land

'My father dies the way he was born—screaming.'

My father, my people, and the "truth." A grievous ghost story from Stilwell, Oklahoma.

by Autumn Fourkiller

New Orleans has a trash problem. Thanks to climate change, your city probably will, too.

'Sanitation issues in New Orleans are pre-Ida and pre-pandemic.'

Some New Orleans neighborhoods went without trash pickup for over a month following Hurricane Ida. Climate change is making post-disaster waste management an urgent problem.

by Drew Hawkins

Requiem for the longleaf pine

The struggle of the longleaf pine can be traced to both New Deal-era welfarism and modern American capitalism.

'The story of longleaf is also the story of the Southern yellow pine. We've just done a really good job of telling the longleaf story.'

by Xander Peters

Mississippi's childhood lead exposure interventions don't do enough for kids

Here's how families can protect themselves.

Experts say solutions aimed at reducing lead exposure from water need to be educational and environmental.

by Erica Hensley

In photos: Afropunk 2021 is a queer, Black homecoming

'I need to be around my people more than ever.'

The Atlanta festival is known for creating a no-hate space. After 18 months, "it's very nice to see just hella black people everywhere."

by Noella Williams

Long reads

Without paid leave, the South's COVID school policies cause a terrible trickle down for families

Schools are at the epicenter of local and state COVID-19 protocols, using families—and children—as political bargaining chips.

by Rainesford Stauffer

The Black opera that stunned America's most segregated stage

Over 180 years after New Orleans' first Black performances, composer Terence Blanchard's 'Fire Shut Up In My Bones' is a breakthrough that's long overdue.

by Frances Madeson

Florida's legacy of slow-rolling parole keeps thousands of people behind bars—some, for decades past their eligibility date

As most states eased prison release rules during the pandemic, Florida granted parole for just one percent of nearly 4,000 eligible people. The state's for-profit prisons reaped the benefit.

by Justin Garcia