“In the News” is published quarterly and provides a sampling of stories, articles, or reviews that reference or relate to beliefs, myths, and narratives in Southern culture since 1970.
“Some Republicans Push to Put School Desegregation Officially in the Past” from The New York Times (May 16, 2025)
“In Louisiana, one of several Southern states with the bulk of remaining orders, the attorney general, with the support of the governor, is reviewing orders statewide and has vowed to work with school districts to “officially put the past in the past.”
“Southern Baptists endorse effort to overturn same-sex-marriage” from The New York Times (June 10, 2025)
“Southern Baptists voted overwhelmingly to call for the overturning of Obergefell v. Hodges, the Supreme Court ruling that legalized same-sex marriage. They were motivated by conservative Christians’ success in reversing Roe v. Wade.”
“NC’s Republican-drawn electoral maps go to trial this week over gerrymandering claims” from Raleigh’s News & Observer (June 16, 2025)
“North Carolina’s Republican-crafted electoral maps are headed to trial this week as opponents contend they illegally gerrymander the state’s Black voters, and other members of racial and ethnic minority groups, into districts meant to dilute their voting power.”
“Into the Weeds: Tennessee’s Hemp Landscape” from the Nashville Scene (June 18, 2025)
“With new legislation overhauling hemp regulations set to go into effect at the beginning of 2026, this week’s cover package takes a look at Tennessee’s cannabis landscape in three parts.”
“US Supreme Court upholds Tennessee law banning youth transgender care” from Reuters (June 18, 2025)
“‘Tennessee concluded that there is an ongoing debate among medical experts regarding the risks and benefits associated with administering puberty blockers and hormones to treat gender dysphoria, gender identity disorder and gender incongruence. (The law’s) ban on such treatments responds directly to that uncertainty,’ conservative Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the majority.”
“Preston Damsky is a law student at the University of Florida. He is also a white nationalist and antisemite. Last fall, he took a seminar taught by a federal judge on ‘originalism,’ the legal theory favored by many conservatives that seeks to interpret the Constitution based on its meaning when it was adopted.
“In his capstone paper for the class, Mr. Damsky argued that the framers had intended for the phrase ‘We the People,’ in the Constitution’s preamble, to refer exclusively to white people. From there, he argued for the removal of voting rights protections for nonwhites, and for the issuance of shoot-to-kill orders against ‘criminal infiltrators at the border.'”
“Kentucky couple reflects on unexpected journey 10 years after marriage equality ruling” from WDRB.com (June 23, 2025)
“Kim and Tammy Franklin didn’t join the fight for marriage equality because they wanted notoriety or special treatment — in fact they wanted the exact opposite.
“‘The point was that it wouldn’t be a big deal, that anybody could marry who they love and we weren’t going to be a big deal,’ Kim said. ‘That’s just the way it was, it was just normal.'”
“Supreme Court lets South Carolina block Medicaid funds from Planned Parenthood” from CBS News (June 26, 2025)
“The question before the court was a narrow one, involving whether a Medicaid beneficiary could sue to enforce their ability to seek care from the qualified and willing provider of their choosing, known as the any-qualified-provider requirement.”
“Lousiana’s coast is eroding. One engineer found a fix in her wine bottle.” from the TED Radio Hour on NPR (June 27, 2025)
“Trautmann had fond childhood memories of playing in Louisiana’s bayous, but for years she saw the coastline in crisis.”
“Why do people leave Mississippi? What can we do about it?” from Rethink Mississippi (ongoing)
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Number of other Southern states that lost population in the 2020 Census.
“Proposed whites-only community in Arkansas raises legal eyebrows” from KATV.com (August 8, 2025)
“She (law professor Dr. Bailey Fairbanks) explained that federal laws, such as the Fair Housing Act of 1968 and the Civil Rights Act of 1866, prohibit racial discrimination in housing.
“However, the group behind the community, Return to the Land, is using a private membership model to potentially circumvent these laws.”
Nobody's Home 