The U.S. government is allowing farmers to fill thousands of jobs with foreign ‘guestworkers.’ The conditions are hardly hospitable—and those who speak out can be sent straight back home. Originally published in Mother Jones. THE GREYHOUND PULLS UP TO A TWO-STORY METAL WAREHOUSE in the tiny town of Vass, North Carolina. Efrain Madrigal gets off the bus. […]
A Hideous Hate Crime
In 1963, four African-American girls were murdered in Birmingham’s Sixteenth Street Baptist Church. Now the granddaughter of one of the bombers—and the sisters of a victim—confront Alabama’s racist legacy. Originally published in Glamour. TERESA STACY WAS STANDING IN HER KITCHEN on a hot Texas afternoon in 1997 when the local television news came on. It was one […]
Hispanic Diaspora
Drawn by jobs, Latino immigrants are moving to small towns like Siler City, North Carolina, bringing with them new diversity—and new tensions. Originally published in Mother Jones. THE DAY OF THE RALLY, Ruth Tapia awakes with a feeling of disgust. It’s a drizzly, overcast morning in February, and all is quiet on the street outside her small, […]
Walking Home
In the Triangle’s Hispanic heart, a Baptist mission learns the joys and trials of building a community. Photos by M.J. Sharp. Originally published as a two-part series in Indy Week. (Click here for Part 2.) Part 1: Soul and Skin SOMETIME THIS SPRING, when the weather gets warm, the members of Loves Creek Hispanic Baptist […]
Holy Spirit
Carrie Bolton preaches a freedom message—and not just inside her church. Originally published in Indy Week. HENRY HUNTER WAS STILL A YOUNG MAN the day he learned Abraham Lincoln had signed the Emancipation Proclamation. With a presidential penstroke, the world suddenly seemed too big for Hunter to stay on the farm where his family lived. “I’ve […]
‘Virtual disenfranchisement’
Originally published in The Nation. CONGRESSMAN MEL WATT DOES A GOOD JOB of representing his constituents. A soft-spoken attorney and one of Congress’s left-most members, Watt hails from one of the more ideologically homogeneous districts in the country: the 12th District of North Carolina. Since he was first elected in 1992, the district has been a skinny […]
Rethinking the Race Beat
Newsrooms are searching for new ways to cover racial and ethnic minorities. Do you need to be a specialist to do it right? Originally published in Columbia Journalism Review. GIVEN ATLANTA’S PLACE in modern American history, it made sense for its hometown newspaper, the Journal-Constitution, to assign a reporter to cover civil rights full-time. Until recently, that job […]
Good Story, Bad Result
A profile puts the subject at risk. Originally published in Columbia Journalism Review. IN EARLY MARCH, THE RALEIGH NEWS & OBSERVER published a front-page profile of Julio Granados, 21, who was working at a local grocery store to support his family back in Guadalajara, Mexico. North Carolina’s Latino population is burgeoning, and Granados represented “Everyhombre,” as writer Gigi […]
Spiritual Union: A Case Study
How a community of Guatemalan immigrant poultry workers triumphed in one of the fiercest anti-labor corners of the nation. Originally published in The Nation. Morganton, North Carolina THE CHOIR LOFT SWELTERS. It’s 5 o’clock on a Sunday afternoon, and all the heat from a summer day in the North Carolina foothills seems to have refracted through the stained-glass […]
Helms’ Last Stand?
The Senate’s most renowned right-winger faces a new day in the Tar Heel state. Originally published in The Nation. FIFTEEN PEOPLE WERE WAITING when Harvey Gantt showed up at the Whitaker Mill Senior Center in Raleigh, North Carolina. In a small lounge room with straight-back chairs and a bulletin board full of photos, the Democratic U.S. Senate […]
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