When Jolene Strickland ran for North Carolina governor in 1996, she received press coverage, money, and votes. If only she existed. Originally published in The Assembly. The 1996 campaign season had just kicked off, and the editorial staff of the Independent Weekly, where I worked at the time, was meeting at our Durham office to plan our […]
Changing a River’s Course
A new movement wants to establish that the Haw River has its own independent, inalienable rights. It’s a long shot, but organizers hope it can change the framing of environmental protection. Originally published in The Assembly. Photos by Roderico Díaz. As a child in the 1980s, Crystal Cavalier-Keck spent summer days inside her grandmother’s classroom […]
Cumulative Impacts
Originally published in the Border Belt Independent, May 2022. LAST WINTER, AS THE N.C. DEPARTMENT of Environmental Quality (DEQ) considered a new permit for a Robeson County plant that generates electricity by burning poultry waste and wood, it turned to the public for comment. The earful it received was mighty and unanimous. The facility, owned […]
The Youngest Operative
Cutler Bryant is 17. He is also a key political strategist in Robeson County, N.C., where Lumbee voters are in the forefront of a hard shift to the Republican Party. Originally published in the Border Belt Independent. WHEN THE ROBESON COUNTY REPUBLICAN Republican Party held its annual convention in March, one of the star speakers […]
Between Place and Party
Charles Graham has rejected party orthodoxy, gone internet viral, and run a dozen points ahead of the Democratic ticket. Now, his bid for an upset congressional victory highlights the challenge for North Carolina’s moderate rural Democrats. Originally published in The Assembly. Photos by Roderico Díaz. One of the most viral ads of the current election cycle […]
Coverage of North Carolina hog industry
Chronological order, oldest to newest. The Vanishing Act (Food & Environment Reporting Network, August 2019) After years of burying complaints about hog-farm pollution, North Carolina officials began posting them online. What changed? (Also published in The Guardian and McClatchy North Carolina papers.) Raising a Stink (Food & Environment Reporting Network, December 2019) Rural North Carolinians sued the world’s largest hog producer over […]
The Contested Swamps of Robeson County
Click here for “The Contested Swamps of Robeson County,” The Assembly, September 2021.
The Contested Swamps of Robeson County
A behemoth natural-gas facility, sitting atop a disrupted archeological site, represents the latest environmental challenge for one of the state’s most diverse yet burdened counties. But the debate over history, benefit, and protection is far more complicated than it first appears. Originally published in The Assembly. Photos by Roderico Díaz. Wakulla, North Carolina is an […]
A New Democratic Playbook
Ricky Hurtado bucked party strategists to run a different kind of campaign. Is he the vanguard of Latinx electoral power and millennial campaigning in North Carolina? Originally published in The Assembly. Photos by Cornell Watson. When Ricky Hurtado launched his state legislative campaign in November 2019, the kickoff party signaled a new kind of Democratic politics […]
Battle Hymns of the Old South
Down but not out in Alamance County, North Carolina Originally published in The Baffler. BEFORE HE ROUNDED THE CORNER into downtown Graham, North Carolina, the Reverend Gregory Drumwright hushed the hundreds of marchers who had gathered on a steamy July day. He lifted his microphone and offered a morsel of history, some sustenance for the final […]
- 1
- 2
- 3
- …
- 13
- Next Page »
