(This is the last Facing South newsletter of the year. See you again in 2022!)

Grassroots groups in the South's least-vaccinated states take on hesitancy

Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi are among the states with the lowest vaccination rates. Grassroots organizations there are partnering with public health officials to battle misinformation and distrust in rural, Latino, and Black communities — but elected officials in those states aren't making their jobs any easier. (12/17/2021)

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VOICES: Prison gerrymandering is the modern three-fifths compromise

Prisons inflate the political representation of the communities that host them — without any say from prisoners themselves. (12/6/2021)

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FROM THE ARCHIVES: Acts of God?

In 2004, Southern Exposure, the print forerunner to Facing South, devoted an issue to examining just how natural so-called "natural disasters" are. The reporting and analysis resonate today as residents of Arkansas, Missouri, Tennessee, and Kentucky struggle to recover from a devastating December tornado outbreak — the impact of which was compounded by workplace policies that treated profits as more important than human lives. (12/16/2021)

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Fighting gerrymandering in the South's Black Belt

Southern states' new Republican-drawn election maps would mean less political power for communities of color in the Black Belt region. Voters there are now asking state and federal courts to decide if the new districts violate state or federal law, including the Voting Rights Act.

Defend democracy in the South!

As a Facing South reader, you know the power of fearless journalism to strengthen our democracy.

Week after week, we expose injustice and hold the powerful accountable. We also tell the inspiring stories of grassroots leaders fighting for democracy and justice in the South.

Today, as newsrooms downsize and social media is flooded with misinformation, Facing South's independent, fact-based journalism is more important than ever.

And we need your help to keep it going.

Can we count on you to support Facing South's accountability journalism today?

As a special "thank you," we will send you a beautiful 2022 wall calendar with your donation of $50 or more.

Thank you for reading, and for your support.

Chris Kromm, Publisher

Facing South is published by the nonprofit Institute for Southern Studies and donations are tax-deductible. Prefer to donate by mail? Please send your check payable to ISS to Institute for Southern Studies, P.O. Box 531, Durham, N.C. 27702. Thanks!

Why the DOJ sued Texas over its new voting maps

In its first lawsuit to come out of the latest round of redistricting, the U.S. Department of Justice has taken aim at Texas, arguing that the GOP legislature's new election district maps violate the Voting Rights Act by discriminating against voters by race or color. We look at some of the numbers cited in the lawsuit, which faces an uphill fight in the new legal landscape created by the Supreme Court's 2013 decision gutting the landmark civil rights-era law.