A Georgia journalist was detained while reporting on an anti-ICE protest, and DHS has reopened an old immigration case against him. He now faces deportation. georgiarecorder.com/2025/09/23/i...

None of the reports from DHS so far have even mentioned the names of the actual people shot — one killed — at the Dallas ICE facility yesterday. This is because humanizing detainees in any way works against the desensitization and dehumanization necessary to sustain the mass deportation project.

Great conversation this week with Leah Song of Rising Appalachia — on music, activism, and bringing people together in tough times. Also: What the National Guard deployment to Memphis signals for cities in Southern states. youtu.be/4O4zUEgjT1g

Thanks to contributor Glenn Daigon for this account of a successful union action by school bus drivers in Richmond, Va. theprogressivesouth.org/learning-fro...

This week: Guns and gun violence in the South, and why the right never wants to talk about it. Also: Great conversation w/Katie Blankenship of Sanctuary of the South, on providing legal help to immigrants in our chaotic moment. sites.libsyn.com/576820/ep-21...

Good news for Cop City protesters! The racketeering charges were a clear overreach that tried to frame political protests as an illegal conspiracy. But this is a mostly procedural ruling, and prosecutors will probably appeal.

New episode of Headlights: Steve Smith of @cleanenergy.org on solar and wind energy progress in the South, and how it's under threat from the Trump admin and massive new power-sucking data centers; and an update on Texas' ever-more-aggressive anti-abortion laws. sites.libsyn.com/576820/ep-20...

From slavery to convict leasing to Jim Crow to "right-to-work," the Southern economy has always depended on extracting labor as cheaply as possible. A Labor Day look at what @epi.org calls the "Southern Economic Development Model."

Holiday greeting from @rickbaldwin.bsky.social. #EditorialCartoons

The latest from @rickbaldwin.bsky.social: School vouchers.

Very happy this week to talk to writer, thinker, educator and Progressive South board member @sotoalfred.bsky.social about Florida politics — how they got so bad, how they can maybe get better. sites.libsyn.com/576820/ep-18...

The latest from Rick Baldwin: on restoring the Confederacy. (More at rickbaldwincartoons.com)

The generally conservative 5th Circuit blocks West Texas A&M's drag ban. FIRE Attorney Adam Steinbaugh: “We’re overjoyed that our clients will now be able to express themselves freely, and we’ll be watching to make sure that President Wendler obeys the laws of the land while the case proceeds."

We are beyond proud of Fort Worth State Rep. Nicole Collier for standing up to ridiculous GOP bullying! Full talk: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/b...

The conversation in HEADLIGHTS this week is with Dom Kelly of @newdisabledsouth.org: "The South has 1/3 of all disabled people in the entire country — the majority of whom are Black. We also have the legacy of eugenics, of slavery, of Jim Crow, that all inform our policies and our systems today."

It's baaaaaack. This week: Why the Confederacy never really died, and why it's making another one of its zombie resurgences now under the Trump administration. Listen here: sites.libsyn.com/576820/ep-17...

Thanks to our friends at Inside of Knoxville for a great write-up and interview about The Progressive South! insideofknoxville.com/2025/08/jess...

A newly formed City of Jackson housing task force promises to hold the city’s landlords accountable for neglect.

Good news out of Florida! A federal judge has thrown out the state law being used to ban books in Florida schools as overbroad and unconstitutional. The law fails the long-established Miller Test for defining obscenity. bookriot.com/penguin-rand...

In this week's episode of Headlights (link below), we're talking about the attacks on the Voting Rights Act from Louisiana and elsewhere. Here's @rickbaldwin.bsky.social's take.

— How a Louisiana court case could be the final nail in the coffin of the Voting Rights Act. — Andrew Otazo of Miami Creation Myth on what the rest of us get wrong about his complicated, "fraudulent" city. — And what Hayley Williams' new songs have to say about Nashville and the South.

Thrilled to welcome @rickbaldwin.bsky.social as a contributor to The Progressive South! Rick is an illustrator, fine artist, writer and podcaster living in the Atlanta area.

They're messin' with Texas! How gerrymandering shapes Southern politics. Plus, a great conversation with Tulane professor @coreyjmiles.bsky.social, who guest-edited this summer's hip-hop themed issue of the journal Southern Cultures. sites.libsyn.com/576820/ep-15...

Back in 2023, a farmworker named José Arturo Gonzalez Mendoza died while working on the massive farm estate owned by Republican State Senator Lisa Barnes. What happened next should shock the conscience. www.newsobserver.com/news/state/n...

This week: Florida's war on immigrants. We talk with Tessa Petit, executive director of the Florida Immigrant Coalition, about the fight for the rights of the state’s immigrant communities. We also take a drive out to Alligator Alcatraz. Listen in! sites.libsyn.com/576820/ep-14...

By the way, we're up on YouTube now as well as Apple Podcasts and Spotify. youtu.be/2u83EYnsnDU

This week: Talkin' book bans in 'Bama with @angiehay.bsky.social of Read Freely Alabama, leadership failures on climate change across the South, and ... Kid Rock's patriotic flag-a-palooza Rock The Country.

An excerpt here from our crossover with the guys at the Cast Iron Resistance podcast: What's up with the increasingly aggressive pro-Trump posturing by our congressman? And ... what does he do in the bathroom? (link to episode in comments) youtu.be/86ieImYlNjQ?...

From @gwenfulton.bsky.social: "I think, maybe now ... they will install the sirens, maybe now they will rebuild the dams, maybe now they will cap the carbon, maybe now they will protect public lands, maybe now they will preserve the forests, maybe now we will be reborn. But they don’t."

Meanwhile, Key West joins South Miami in refusing an agreement to use local police for immigration enforcement — despite state officials' threats of retaliation.

Alligator Alcatraz update: Fla. AG denies request from Miami-Dade County for oversight and regular reports on conditions at the detention center. The center is on land owned by Miami-Dade County.

We went down to Louisiana to hear from @seiu.org members as they demonstrated outside an ICE detention center and rallied in New Orleans. You'll hear from a lot of those voices here, along with representatives from @aclu.org, and more. Along the way: Louisiana history, Alligator Alcatraz and more.

"Without those people, you're not going to be able to run your farm." If you needed to summarize the various Confederate articles of secession in one sentence, this would pretty much cover it.

This week, Chris Sanders of @tnequality.bsky.social and Jeff Graham of @georgiaequality.org weigh in on the Skrmetti decision and the ongoing assault on LGBTQ rights in our states. Also: Texas gov vetoes THC ban; a lawsuit over Mississippi's anti-DEI law; and DeSantis wants his own accreditation.

We drove out to Basile, La., today for a demonstration organized by @seiu.org at an ICE detention center for women. Union folks from all over the country showing solidarity with their many immigrant members.

Georgia Senator Raphael Warnock: "We are in a moral moment. Because something else is on the line. I submit that the character of the country is on the line. In a real sense, the question tonight is who are we?"

Service workers from the South gathered in Selma to honor our movement ancestors. On the Edmund Pettus Bridge, we felt their courage—and carry it with us. From Selma to Louisiana, we march for immigrant rights and justice for all. The fight isn’t over. #SolidaritySummer

About a quarter of North Carolinians use Medicaid to pay for their healthcare, including Debbie DeWeese. Now, cuts to Medicaid have DeWeese worried that she will lose her life-saving health coverage. Read more: bit.ly/45D9vO8 #NCPol #NCNews

the president does not actually have the power to fire a university president or a museum director, but if elites simply roll over under pressure, then effectively he does

Florida is working with the University System of Georgia, the University of North Carolina system, University of South Carolina, the University of Tennessee system, and the Texas A&M University system to establish an anti-"woke" accrediting system for higher education.

Great new issue of Southern Cultures with a bunch of smart writing and thinking about Southern hip-hop!

Louisiana is following Tennessee's lead in classifying natural gas as "green energy." (Spoiler: It's not.)

"This is the first known instance in American history where a state has imposed felony liability on local officials simply for the viewpoint expressed in their votes," the lawsuit says. "In an alleged democracy, our legislative chambers have been reduced to crime scenes."

Whose stories count in the South — and who gets to tell them? In this week's episode, we talk about that with Gwen Frisbie-Fulton of "Working Class Storytelling." Also: In the wake of the Skrmetti decision, a look at LGBTQ rights in Southern states. Plus: the Gospel-soul of Annie and the Caldwells!

This week: Talking with @brandonjones.bsky.social about the SPLC Action Fund and working to get progressive candidates elected in local races across the Deep South. Plus: How Southern states are ahead of RFK Jr. in mainstreaming hostility to vaccines. sites.libsyn.com/576820/ep-8-...

Great remembrance of Mississippi's Camp Sister Spirit and the determined women who founded it.

Here it is — the extended cut of our interview with queer country singer-songwriter @adeemtheartist.bsky.social. We go deeper on wrestling with Southern history, gender identity and the frustrations of party politics in a moment that demands more. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/b...

This week: Talking Southern masculinity, racial history and queer country with @adeemtheartist.bsky.social! Plus: the GOP's war on Nashville Mayor @freddieoconnell.bsky.social; DeSantis tightens his grip on Florida universities; and — Conan the Barbarian!

Revered Miami meteorologist @johnmoralestv.bsky.social has a warning about this year's hurricane season and the impacts of federal staffing and budget cuts.

This week: Texas goes full prohibition on THC, leading a Southern charge against cannabis. We look at the state of weed in our states. Also: an interview with Ilham Askia, CEO of the Atlanta nonprofit East Lake Foundation. And a production of The Miracle Worker at Helen Keller's Alabama home.