Fifty years after the murders of Schwerner, Chaney and Goodman, North Carolina activists move from civil disobedience to big voter mobilization push.. Originally published in The American Prospect. All photos © 2014 by Jenny Warburg. “I NORMALLY WEAR CUFF LINKS,” the Rev. William Barber II told the 75 activists, black and white, who filled the […]
Moral Monday Movement Gears Up for Round 2
As the North Carolina state legislature reopens on May 14 with no ideological reversal in sight, the Monday takeovers of the rotunda will resume. So, likely, will the arrests. Originally published in The American Prospect. ON WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON, THE NORTH CAROLINA legislature will open its 2014 session. It will be hard for the Republican majority to […]
Reports from Moral Monday
During 2014, I reported on North Carolina’s Moral Monday movement, a faith-based organizing effort that is becoming a national model. The movement is spearheaded by the state NAACP with broad support from churches and issue-based organizations, including women’s, immigrant, environmental, LGBT, and labor groups. Most of the articles were published online by The American Prospect, illustrated by […]
The Gutbucket King
By Barry Yeoman
He stood at the kitchen window waiting. He had memorized everything around him: the pine walls, bare of wallpaper or even paint; the wardrobe where his widowed mother kept her churn for making buttermilk; the stove fueled by the firewood he cut each morning; the two coolers, one for dairy and the other for cakes and pies. He had branded them into his memory, these artifacts of a life that, after today, would no longer be his.
Women Vets: A Battle All Their Own
While female service members confront the same problems as male veterans, they also face distinct struggles. Originally published in Parade. WHEN STACY KEYTE WAS DEPLOYED Iraq in 2005, her life as a young wife and mother had just begun to take shape. She had a 15-month-old son, Caleb, a happy boy who loved dancing around […]
Town and Country
On North Carolina’s Amendment One, the fault line was not racial—it was urban-rural. Originally published in The American Prospect. IN THE WEEK SINCE NORTH CAROLINA VOTERS adopted a constitutional amendment banning recognition of any “domestic legal union” other than heterosexual marriage, a consensus has formed among journalists about African-American complicity. According to this narrative, black voters let […]
The Morning After Amendment 1: Your World. And Mine.
Originally published in Indy Week. Reprinted in 27 Views of Durham (Eno Press). IF YOU DIDN’T PEEK AT THE NUMBERS ON THE TV INSIDE—where Amendment 1, North Carolina’s marriage amendment, was racking up a 22-point margin of victory—you might have imagined the scene outside Fullsteam brewery in Durham was a celebration Tuesday night. The air […]
Whitewash
In his new autobiography, Jesse Helms sees himself as a humanitarian—not a racist supporter of brutal right-wing regimes who turned obstructionism into a foreign policy. Originally published in Indy Week. I’VE ONLY MET JESSE HELMS ONCE. I was profiling him for two national magazines during his 1996 Senate race, and for two days I shadowed him […]
Beyond Betrayal
The vast majority of GOP leaders won’t be embracing gay Republicans any time soon. In fact, many of them still think they’re good for an easy laugh. Originally published in the online edition of Mother Jones. IN 1972, JAMES WAGSTAFF WAS A POSTER CHILD for the Republican Party—quite literally. Posing with a Dallas Cowboys fullback, the […]
A Taste for Tolerance
Years of struggle taught Charlotte, North Carolina, and other American cities that diversity is a growth industry. Originally published in AARP The Magazine. Charlotte TV station WBTV looks back at the student sit-ins in Charlotte. REGINALD HAWKINS COULD FEEL HIS HEART RACING as he and three friends made their way through Douglas Municipal Airport in Charlotte, North […]
