As Highways Expand, Black Communities Are Threatened With Flooding and Land Loss

Timothy Williams’ family has lived in the same community for over 150 years, but he is afraid that they are one big storm away from losing it all. Eight years ago, the Alabama Department of Transportation widened the highway that runs just a few yards from Williams’ home in Shiloh. Since then, every time it rains, water has flowed down the highway, flooding his land with enough force to…
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Despite the State’s Attempts to Stamp Out Opposition, Our Movements Persevere

It is difficult to find inspiration on this Juneteenth. We are still living in difficult times. In the last year, hundreds of thousands of African Americans have lost jobs. Some state legislatures in the South — Florida, Alabama, Tennessee, and Mississippi — have sought to dilute Black political power after the Supreme Court issued its Louisiana v. Callais decision. Meanwhile…
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SCOTUS Allows Alabama to Use Voting Map Ruled Discriminatory by Lower Court

The U.S. Supreme Court Tuesday evening allowed Alabama to use a 2023 congressional map, reversing a lower court’s ruling that repeatedly deemed the map racially discriminatory. In an unsigned 6-3 decision on the case known as Allen v. Milligan, the court wrote that the lower court’s map would not be “more convenient” for Alabama than the congressional map the Legislature passed in 2023.
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Federal Judges Block Alabama From Using Racially Gerrymandered Congressional Map

A three-judge panel on Tuesday morning blocked Alabama from using a 2023 congressional map the panel ruled racially discriminatory and ordered the state to use a remedial map aimed at giving Black Alabamians a chance to elect their preferred leaders. The order comes almost a month after the U.S. Supreme Court substantially weakened Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act in a case known as…
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Decades of Stigmatization Fueled Growing Threat of Pregnancy Criminalization

In the aftermath of the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization Supreme Court decision that overturned Roe v. Wade, there has been increased movement toward criminalization of abortion. The Fifth Circuit Court recently ordered the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to rescind guidance permitting the use of telemedicine for mifepristone, one of the two medications used for medication…
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Southern Poverty Law Center Says It Faces Federal Criminal Investigation

The Southern Poverty Law Center is the target of a federal investigation, potentially over the use of paid informants to gather intelligence on extremist groups, the organization said in a statement Tuesday. Bryan Fair, the interim CEO of the Montgomery-based civil rights organization, said he does not know all the details of the investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice but believes it’…
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