Jaysus Effin' Christ. I hope this leads to a better policy of scrutiny. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/06/b...

www.podbean.com/eas/pb-br4yw... @wralpheubanks.bsky.social @beaconpress.bsky.social #blacksky #politics #podcast

On the next episode of A Moment with Erik Fleming! @wralpheubanks.bsky.social @beaconpress.bsky.social #blacksky #politics #podcast #nokings

“The song shares the line with the title of W. Ralph Eubanks’s recent book, “When It’s Darkness on the Delta: How America’s Richest Soil Became Its Poorest Land,” as well as the title of a…song that painted the region’s overt racism with nostalgic hues.” oxfordamerican.org/oa-now/lucin...

As a Mississippian, @wralpheubanks.bsky.social refers to Chicago as the Up South. You can see the cultural influence of the South, particularly from the Mississippi Delta, in Chicago. You could also call it Mississippi North. 😉 buff.ly/9z53Hns

"US leads worldwide decline in academic freedom. Academic freedom has declined more quickly in the United States than any other country in the past year, but it is a significant contributor to a worrying global trend of continuing decline in academic freedom, according to a new report."

If the administration feels no need to explain itself to a reliably subservient Congress, and if the president assumes that whatever he does in office enjoys legal sanction and limited oversight, what need will he feel to explain himself to the American people? www.nytimes.com/2026/03/24/o...

May 17: Who are the We in "We the People?" Two of our most brilliant writers on Constitutional history and American identity, on the centuries-long, back and forth struggle to extend the protection of the Constitution to those excluded from it. www.chicagohumanities.org/events/atten...

“It is time,” Panievsky concludes, “we all become actively responsible for our information environment.” Given the powerful forces determined to pollute our environment, that calm advice is a muffled scream. open.substack.com/pub/roncharl...

Publishers have maintained a firm line against A.I.-generated text and images, and require authors to attest that their work is original in their publishing contracts. But few have clear policies or measures to prevent users from writing with A.I. www.nytimes.com/2026/03/19/b...

“American cinema needs more of this raw truth — stories that pulse in the blood and set spirits free. We don’t need endless remakes. We need the conjure, the haints and the original hope that comes from knowing exactly who we are.” www.ms.now/opinion/ryan...

So cool that people are still discovering this #Sinners syllabus, published by the African American Intellectual History Society, and composed by Jemar Tisby & Keisha N. Blain. Enjoy!

Many of these men in the Delta are the descendants of colonists who, beginning in the eighteen-thirties, embarked on the “Great Trek,” a migration from the coast of South Africa into the region’s interior to establish farms. www.newyorker.com/news/the-led...

BuzzFeed dying after chasing profits into a sinkhole vs. Gawker getting killed for challenging entrenched power is the perfect conclusion to the 2010s content philosophy wars.

If you want to understand the origins of income inequality across the US, a key place to start is the Mississippi Delta. That’s why @wralpheubanks.bsky.social wrote WHEN IT’S DARKNESS ON THE DELTA.

Space is still available for “Words on Water,” so sign up today. www.mshumanities.org/words-on-wat...

“Yes, there are lots of places with grand mythologies. The American West is a place of incredible mythology. But in the Mississippi Delta, it's that the myth seems so powerful that it can erase pieces of the past.” Big thanks to @agwaterdesk.bsky.social for an engaging conversation.

The pathway out of poverty can only be cleared—and forged—when we all are involved and recognize parents in poverty as capable and worthy. The parents Nicole Lynn Lewis refers to are student parents who are raising kids while getting a degree. @literaryhub.bsky.social

The focus on the covers of this deal has completely neglected the role of writers and creators in building the value of these companies.

Contrary to the collective mythology, the American South isn’t a regional “other.” According to @wralpheubanks.bsky.social, the South has actually come to the rest of the nation. @capitalb.bsky.social

Dr. Don Cole is a retired UM professor of mathematics, administrator & LOU community leader. Come see a film created by Dr. Castel Sweet & Antonio Tarrell at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, 3/3 in Fulton Chapel at the U of Mississippi. There will be snacks & a reception afterward in the Ole Miss Union.

"From public syllabi to surveillance, universities across the country are embracing unprecedented policies that professors say are undermining their academic freedom. And North Carolina is front and center." www.wunc.org/podcast/the-... | @wunc.org

An innovative program that connects story, history, and place in a powerful shared experience. So honored to be a part of it. www.mshumanities.org/words-on-wat...

Ralph Eubanks argues the nation can no longer disregard the Mississippi Delta because we are all living with one foot in the South. Until we confront the challenges of the Delta, only then can we address similar issues in other "Deltas" across the country. capitalbnews.org/mississippi-...

“I want [readers] to remember that this is not just a book about the Delta. It’s a book about America….I knew that I was writing about the Delta, but I also reminded myself that I was also writing about America.” capitalbnews.org/mississippi-...

So glad someone wrote about these literary email scams www.nytimes.com/2026/02/25/b...

Writers: watch for scam artists. While email scams are common, I recently got pitched a possible promotion scam by voice mail. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/25/b...

“Harper follows in the grand tradition of Senator Jesse Helms in mocking areas of research he expects will be unpopular with the general public. “ Preach it, Michael Roth! www.chronicle.com/blogs/letter...

A remarkable historical document from 2008: the NYT on Jeffrey Epstein’s plea and jail sentence. The last paragraph will be interesting to readers of the recent release of his emails. www.nytimes.com/2008/07/01/b...

I’ll be inSpartanburg, SC, Thursday February 26 at Converse University in conversation with Allison Vick. Thanks you, @hubcitypress.bsky.social for the invitation . www.hubcity.org/events/640/r...

New Episode Alert 🚨 The Most American Place: W. Ralph Eubanks on the Pain and Love of the Delta This week on Story, we sit down with W. Ralph Eubanks to discuss his new book, 'When It's Darkness on the Delta.' podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/p...

When Rev. Jesse Jackson visited the Mississippi Delta town of Tunica in 1985, gambling was the last thing on his mind. He was “disappointed about the collapse of government at all levels on the problems of these people.” @wralpheubanks.bsky.social

This is a great group of Willie Morris Prize winners for this year. I'll be moderating a conversation between this year's winners on March 24, 2026 at Off Square Books in Oxford Mississippi at 4:00 pm. It should be a great event so join us. olemiss.edu/news/2026/02...

Thanks for a great conversation, @plagueremedypodast.bsky.social . Yes the Mississippi Delta is not just the most Southern place on earth, but the most American place. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/p...

“Everyone underestimated the ways that the plantation power structure would work so hard to maintain their dominance. It is in that struggle for power that we see the problems in the Mississippi Delta.” — @wralpheubanks.bsky.social

In 1973 I visited DC at 16 as the only Black Boy Scout in my Jamboree troop from MS. I walked into the Capitol rotunda and saw Jesse Jackson standing tall and proud. I could summon nothing to say to him. But I know he made me stand taller in that moment. Rest easy. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/17/u...

Rubio’s version of the U.S. did not include Black Americans at all…and even though he called out the Rolling Stones, who built their body of work on that of Black American blues musicians like Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf, as part of “western civilization.”

I've had numerous writing spaces over the years--I write about the South whether I am in the region or not--so I have had to do exactly what this article suggests: make myself at home in the very act of writing, no matter where and how it happens. #TheWritingLife www.newyorker.com/culture/open...

Spent my day, along with many others, in federal court telling the truth in defense of free speech. The University of Mississippi spent its day in that same court not defending free speech. That’s the math.

‘There is Light Again!’ An insightful reflections on the Mississippi ice storms of 1994 and 2026 by my University of Mississippi colleague Eric Solomon. mississippitoday.org/2026/02/13/i...

Today in 1633, Galileo arrives in Rome to defend his evidence of a heliocentric universe. He is forced to recant to those who denied the science. At his sentencing he allegedly muttered, Eppur si muove—"And yet it moves.” @peterhotezmdphd.bsky.social

NBCC member Sullivan Summer interviewed award-winning writer W. Ralph Eubanks about his book "When It's Darkness on the Delta: How America's Richest Soil Became Its Poorest Land" for the New Books Network:

Further evidence of the lack of promise and failure of casinos in Tunica, Mississippi: the now-closed Casino Way Court shopping center. And I would add that Sam's Town in Tunica is now closed as well.

If you’re in Columbus, Mississippi, today stop by for my conversation with poet C.T. Salazar and stay for Delta blues from Edna Nicole and Rev Slim.

These are great photographs but if you imagine this kind of destruction on every corner you get a true sense of the damage. In Oxford , MS, it truly looks as if a bomb went off. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/11/u...

Today is the 99th birthday of my diva and homegirl, Leontyne Price, from Laurel, Mississippi, which is just down the road from my hometown of Mount Olive. www.wqxr.org/story/singul...

@wralpheubanks.bsky.social describes the Mississippi Delta as a palimpsest. There are layered stories written on top of each other. Those stories keep up from seeing how it’s a region built on the backs of Black folks. @esglaude.bsky.social buff.ly/pu2v8dW

"Popularity is not always a measure of merit, and, in any case, it is not static. What people click—and what they think they like—is largely a matter of what is available to them. Publics are made and maintained, not discovered preformed, like rock formations." www.newyorker.com/books/page-t...

Tomorrow I will be talking about my photographs of the Mississippi Delta at the Center for the Study of Southern Culture at the University of Mississippi. The talk is part of the SouthTalks series and takes place in the Tupelo Room of Barnard Observatory at noon, February 11.

Mixing history, journalism, photography, and memoir, @wralpheubanks.bsky.social’s WHEN IT’S DARKNESS ON THE DELTA challenges our understanding of the Mississippi Delta, a place that has become, in the minds of many, a pilgrimage site for Blues fans.