Tennessee state Rep. Justin J. Pearson emerges from the House chamber Thursday morning to fire up protesters in the hallway, as the GOP supermajority hurtles toward carving up Memphis’ Black voters among majority-white congressional districts.

The famous colorblindness of white Southern conservatives. Something they have always been known for. Like when they said, "separate but equal."

South Carolina writer @rickpidcock.bsky.social grew up in the conservative evangelical movement and has become an astute observer and critic of it. As a columnist for @baptistnews.com ws, he has been raising alarms about the ongoing growth of Christian nationalism. sites.libsyn.com/576820/ep-52...

In case you were distracted by the right-wing assault on voting rights, the right-wing assault on reproductive rights is still advancing. The conservative 5th Circuit has at least for now blocked mail access to mifepristone nationwide. lailluminator.com/2026/05/01/5...

Memphis is the second-largest majority-Black city in the United States. Sen. Marsha Blackburn and other Tennessee conservatives want to split it into pieces to ensure that its more than 400,000 Black residents are powerless minorities in three different congressional districts.

The question now will be how far Southern conservative legislators think they can go in drawing new districts that will "unintentionally" eliminate African-American representation.

This week, we round up some of the worst laws passed this spring in Southern states to further bully and harass trans people. This year’s bills are no longer only aiming at issues like sports and bathroom access, but directly at the presence — or even the mention — of trans people altogether.

Conservative leaders across the South are deferential to Elon Musk, if not outright subservient to him. And the richest man in the world is taking advantage of that as he wreaks havoc on our earth, air and water. theprogressivesouth.org/elon-musks-t...

@betsyphillips.bsky.social tears into TN Gov. Bill Lee's proclamation of Nuclear Family Month: "Can you even imagine the delusional gall it takes to sit in a state built through the enslavement of people talking about how Tennessee was built on one man, one woman and their kids?"@nashvillescene.com

Great conversation this week with @emyellin.bsky.social! She co-wrote the new memoir NONVIOLENT, with the late Rev. James Lawson Jr., who trained generations of civil rights leaders and activists. His life and guiding ideas provide a through-line of fights for justice, from the 1950s to the 2020s.

Young Democrats in the South? They're not mythological beasts. This week: talking to the leaders of the newly organized Knox County Young Democrats, in one of the most Republican parts of Tennessee. Also: those slippery Texas social studies standards, and Florida's war on sociology.

Virginia will no longer issue Robert E. Lee commemorative license plates. Democratic Del. Dan Helmer of Fairfax: "The Confederacy and its leaders do not deserve our commemoration, and its adherents certainly do not deserve taxpayer dollars.”

This week: a pleasure to talk with journalist @jazmineulloa.bsky.social about her excellent new book on the past and present of El Paso. Also: Dems flip two legislative seats in Florida; Louisiana leads the way in forcing schools to post the 10 Commandments; and a purse museum in Little Rock.

How bad is the air in Louisiana's Cancer Alley? Even worse than you think. Johns Hopkins scientists Peter DeCarlo and Keeve Nachman sampled the 85-mile corridor and found toxin levels up to 10X higher than previously reported. They walk through the findings on this week's episode. (link below)

Tennessee has two school voucher programs. The older, smaller one requires state testing and reporting of scores. The newer, statewide one does not. The older one has shown underperformance by voucher students. So now the Legislature is getting ready to scrap those test requirements too.

Some prominent Republican sheriffs in Florida are questioning Trump's mass deportation program. floridaphoenix.com/2026/03/16/f...

This week: Talking immigration politics and more with Georgia state Sen. Kim Jackson @kimforgeorgia.bsky.social. Plus: rising right-wing radicalism in Florida and Texas, and a look at the multicultural work of Ballet Nepantla. theprogressivesouth.org/headlights-e...

William Wolfe and the Center for Baptist Leadership are bringing MAGA politics and ethno-nationalism into the heart of the Southern Baptist Convention. baptistnews.com/article/sbc-...

A raft of primaries and one special election in the South brought new faces into the spotlight and offered clues about this fall’s midterms. We take a look at the U.S. Senate race in Texas, anti-establishment votes in both parties in N.C., and an Arkansas state House district that flipped blue.

This week, we're letting the private prison profiteers speak for themselves — with some annotations. You can hear the leaders of CoreCivic brag about their 2025 contracts with ICE. And also some things about their prisons that they forgot to mention to shareholders. sites.libsyn.com/576820/ep-43...

The centrist impulse to offer up the LGBTQ community as a sacrifice in order to achieve "peace" in the wokeness wars is exactly the sentiment that led to the industrial north giving up enforcement of racial equality in exchange for getting the country back humming again after the Civil War.

Sen. Marsha Blackburn is a cheerleader for ICE and the mass detention and deportation of immigrants. But she has made sure ICE won't put a detention camp of 16,000 prisoners in white, affluent, Republican Wilson County.

On back to back days, the Tennessee Valley Authority reversed course on plans to close two massive coal-fired power plants, and the Trump administration abandoned federal regulation of greenhouse gases. We talked about it with Steve Smith of @cleanenergy.org.

“They’re very intentionally staffing the Department of Education office with these ultraconservative ideologues.” www.insidehighered.com/news/faculty...

Terrific reporting from @nashvillebanner.bsky.social. "Footage also captured a pattern of demeaning conduct from law enforcement, who used a mix of pejoratives to describe the targets ... as teams of law enforcement apparently competed to detain the most people."

The great @jimhightower.com recalls his work with Jesse Jackson. When we talked to Hightower last fall, he said that Jackson in 1988 ran "the only intentionally racially inclusive populist campaign in recent American history."

This week: How the @selc.bsky.social is fighting for environmental protections in the South. We talk to Program Director Geoff Gisler about the first year of Trump 2.0, and what's ahead. Also: more on the FBI's seizure of Georgia ballots, and a look at Ella Langley's "Choosin' Texas."

Alabama Power produces some of the dirtiest and most expensive electricity in the country. This week, we talk to @insideclimatenews.org reporter @dennispillion.bsky.social about why that is. Also: What does Taylor Rehmet’s win in a red district mean for Texas? sites.libsyn.com/576820/ep-40...

The erasure of Black history by this administration continues.

This week: New Orleans vs. ICE. NOLA Mayor Helena Moreno and other leaders testified last week about the fear and disruption spread by Operation Catahoula Crunch. Also: Trump's FBI seizes Georgia ballots, and the ongoing impact of winter weather across the South. sites.libsyn.com/576820/ep-39...

Inside the FBI raid taking archived 2020 election ballots from Fulton County, Ga. County Commissioner Mo Ivory, who's also a law professor, says local officials are looking for legal avenues to protect the ballots from seizure by Trump's Justice Department. www.instagram.com/reel/DUEZYDN...

NOLA City Council President JP Morrell: "If Minneapolis is the tip of the spear, New Orleans is the hand — a blue city in a red state being used as a test case. So goes New Orleans, so goes the South." www.axios.com/local/new-or...

Nashville Metro Council votes down enhanced surveillance cameras. Councilmember Zulfat Suara: “I do not trust our state government. I do not trust our federal government. By being paranoid, that’s the only way we make sure people don’t get hurt.”

King's work and words went so far beyond "I have a dream." This week, we listen to selections from speeches across his career, from the age of 25 to his death at 39, as he argued forcefully for political equality and economic justice, in the name of love and brotherhood. (link below)

Last year @texasobserver.org outed an ICE prosecutor as a vehement white supremacist. After an unspecified internal review, he's back on the job with no official acknowledgement of his online activities.

The Tennessee House opens its session by classifying any venue that hosts even one drag show a year as an "adult cabaret," subjecting them to zoning restrictions. This is just a warm-up for a promised raft of anti-immigrant bills.

This week: Talking with Marques Thompson, organizing director for @democracync.bsky.social about the fight for democracy in the Tar Heel State. Also: How Texas A&M's crazy DEI purge led to Texas' largest public university censoring Plato. theprogressivesouth.org/headlights-e...

Context if needed is that Wesley Hunt is running for Senate, and is trying to squeeze through a Republican primary between John Cornyn and wildman Attorney General Ken Paxton. He appears to be vying for the "enthusiasm for state violence" caucus. thehill.com/homenews/hou...

Republican county mayors, pastors and child advocates across Tennessee asked Gov. Bill Lee to apply for federal funds for summer food aid. For the second year in a row, Lee said no.

Lots of interesting races across the South this year. This week we talk about Texas, Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee. What campaigns or candidates are on your radar? sites.libsyn.com/576820/ep-35...

Significant news for the 2026 congressional elections: Louisiana will continue to use its challenged district map for this cycle, drawn with two majority-Black districts. But a Supreme Court ruling still to come in the case could affect future elections.

We have some suggestions for other governors who might merit extended overseas deployments ...

2025 has been a tumultuous and difficult year. In a year-end episode, we look back at some of the major issues we’ve covered on Headlights, from immigration enforcement to redistricting battles to labor rights and electoral contests.

Tennessee Rep. Andy Ogles, showing his usual keen grasp of the U.S. Constitution, says immigrants have to "worship our god" or "get the hell out."

Had a great time talking with @katebarrcanwin.bsky.social about the @cantwinvictoryfund.bsky.social in North Carolina. Taking a fresh approach to highlighting the damage done by gerrymandered maps — and having fun doing it. (link below)

Great news in Alabama! Fantastic work by the alumni group MASTHEAD.

Florida's voucher program is going great. "On any given day, Florida’s education department did not know where 30,000 students were going to school and could not account for the $270 million in taxpayer funds it took to support them." www.washingtonpost.com/education/20...

What did @aftynbehn.bsky.social's sizable swing in Tennessee's 7th Congressional District election mean? We check in again for some thoughts and analysis with @corbintrent.bsky.social of America's Undoing. Also: farewell to Southern soul giant Steve Cropper. theprogressivesouth.org/headlights-e...

Sat down with the great @jimhightower.com for a talk about Texas politics past, present and future. He's been sounding a consistent alarm for decades about the Democratic Party's reliance on and deference to corporate donors. theprogressivesouth.org/headlights-e...

This week Jesse talks to Southlands founder and editor @boyceupholt.bsky.social about Southerners' relationship to our natural surroundings — and about a new book Upholt has also written, about the history and destiny of the Mississippi River. theprogressivesouth.org/headlights-e...