"Many may know of the region in terms of poverty, its legacy of racism and inequality, [or] the blues... Vividly accounting landscapes, histories, interaction with locals, and present realities of the area, @wralpheubanks.bsky.social demonstrates how the area got to where it is and why."

“The assumption that that there’s no diversity of opinion in the state [of Mississippi], that books don’t matter, that we’re all insular and backward-looking irks the hell out of me.” Me, too. An illuminating conversation with my dear friend Steve Yarbrough. open.substack.com/pub/rooted/p...

Like Willie Stark in Robert Penn Warren’s “All the King’s Men,” Trump is consumed by a fear of history’s judgment. Yet I don’t think Trump has a Jack Burden in his circle to add clarity to the chaos. Jill Lepore on Writing the Trump Years Into History www.newyorker.com/news/america...

I tried to warn everyone what the Roberts Court was about almost ten years ago www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

This sounds like a great new exhibit at the Library of Congress. substack.com/@roncharles/...

Just reminding everyone that Black political representation has material effects on policy. It’s so effective that the last time Black politicians were run out of office (Reconstruction), it was with violent force. They paid with their lives for their success. www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

The court issued a permanent injunction enjoining the administration from giving effect to the mass terminations and requiring the government to rescind every termination notice. authorsguild.org/news/authors...

These people are exactly who they’ve told you they are:

"This latest trend shows an embrace of anti-intellectualism, undermining public knowledge by devaluing education and expertise. It is another example of how censorship sweeps broadly, leading to removals of all kinds of books..." pen.org/press-releas...

When House members meet this month for a special session to redraw state Supreme Court districts, they will convene in the Old Capitol building, where Mississippi lawmakers once implemented Jim Crow and voted to secede from the Union over slavery. mississippitoday.org/2026/05/04/o...

“Take This Job and Shove It” was on the juke box at the Tune Inn on Capitol Hill in DC back in the 80s. Whenever a friend changed jobs we would go to there and play it over and over while the beers flowed. www.nytimes.com/2026/04/30/a...

The fun thing about writing about the civil rights movement and white resistance in Mississippi is you get all these racist Republican politicians with names like "Wirt Yerger" and "Prentiss Walker" and (checks news) "Shad White"

Today the “Words on Water” with the Mississippi Humanities Council program hit the water, and it was a beautiful day to be in a canoe on the Mississippi River.

@wralpheubanks.bsky.social begins each chapter in WHEN IT’S DARKNESS ON THE DELTA with lyrics from blues songs. He wanted readers to have a soundtrack while reading the book. There’s a Spotify playlist, too! 🎶😊🎶

Nearly a year since she was abruptly fired by President Donald Trump as librarian of Congress, Carla Hayden stood before hundreds of cheering members of the literary community as she received a Champion of Writers Award from the Authors Guild on Monday. apnews.com/article/carl...

“I am trying to get people to see not only the Delta, but also the way that the Delta is this mirror to America. But there is a veil over the mirror. If you lift off the veil and then you look closely, you do see America staring back at you.” youtube.com/watch?v=EKsM...

@wralpheubanks.bsky.social owes his relationship with and his love for the Mississippi Delta to his father, who took on regular trips there when he was a boy. Those were also father-son bonding trips.

“Some people say, “I just use it to brainstorm ideas.” If you don’t know what to paint, or compose, or write, you’re in the wrong job. Art is the business of making up stuff — go make up some stuff.” @colsonwhitehead.com weighs in on AI! www.nytimes.com/2026/04/15/o...

In the 1960s, Dr. H. Jack Geiger of the Delta Health Center prescribed food for patients to be purchased at Black-owned grocery stores and paid for it with a mix of federal dollars and grants intended for pharmaceuticals. So the idea of food as medicine is not new. www.nytimes.com/2026/04/10/d...

In @wralpheubanks.bsky.social’s WHEN IT’S DARKNESS ON THE DELTA, you’ll meet farmer Calvin Head. He runs a cooperative of Black farmers in Holmes Country and talks about all the hurdles they’re facing today. There’s a hidden history behind those hurdles. buff.ly/scy4Qgr

Last night I read from my book “When It’s Darkness on the Delta” at the Juke Joint Festival in Clarksdale, MS. You could say I was one of the warm up acts for blues legend Bobby Rush, who wowed the crowd.

I so enjoyed the conversation on “We, the Unhoused.” Give it a listen.

Ok, Let’s Go, Blue!

Very excited for @joshgondelman.bsky.social to host the upcoming @authorsguild.org gala partly because I have so many questions I want to ask Cord Jefferson about his The Corrections adaptation. authorsguild.org/foundation/g...

Come to Clarksdale, MS Friday for Thacker Mountain Radio! Music by blues legend Bobby Rush, Twurt Chamberlain, and Paul Tate and the Yallowbushwackers. I’ll be there as well, talking with host Jim Dee’s about my book “When It’s Darkness on the Delta.” Bring a lawn chair!

@wralpheubanks.bsky.social has seen SINNERS 3 times! (YAY!) He says the vampire is an apt metaphor for the vampirism Black communities of the Mississippi Delta experience in the form of economic oppression.

Perfect April 1 column from @roncharles.bsky.social , one that mirrors the real news in publishing of late. open.substack.com/pub/roncharl...

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...