The racially charged chants that President Trump elicited last week in Greenville, North Carolina, didn’t arise in a vacuum. Trump is tapping the remnants of the Jim Crow white supremacy movement that seized power from African Americans and other people of color in the rural east in the late 19th […]
Read More
This piece was originally published in Scalawag, which amplifies the voices of activists, artists, and writers reckoning with the South. You can read the original article here. When friends in Brooklyn ask where I’m from, I say “nearby Asheville.” They usually react with delight. They’ve heard Asheville is so cool. Recently […]
Read More
Electric co-ops’ old investments in coal-fired production prevent them from taking the next step into economical and efficient renewable energy. A new report offers a way forward. Rural electric cooperatives’ loyalty to coal is holding rural America back. That’s according to a new report authored by CURE (Clean Up the River Environment), […]
Read More
Between 1850 and 1950, thousands of African American men, women and children were victims of lynchings: public torture and killings carried out by white mobs. Lynchings were used to terrorize and control black people, notably in the South following the end of slavery. Yet despite the prevalence and seriousness of […]
Read More
In my small town, not all of us believe the same thing. But that doesn’t stop us from believing in each other. Growing up in the South, we always congregated around churches. Believing in God felt a lot like believing in each other. For many years, I equated the belief […]
Read More
What if we sent a different message to our rural young people? “Leave, but remember you can come back later and create a good life.” Rural millennials are forming a national organization to connect and support young adults who are making a difference back home. When I graduated from Ilwaco […]
Read More