The Forgotten History of the Voting Rights Act
The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to rule this month on a challenge by Shelby County, Alabama, to a portion of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. It’s legislation that in a certain sense was born in Alabama because of what’s known as Bloody Sunday. On March 7, 1965, police brutally beat protesters on Selma’s Edmund Pettus Bridge which spurred President Lyndon Johnson to push for the bill. But University of Delaware history professor Gary May says there’s much more to the Voting Rights Act. He writes about the law in his book Bending Toward Justice: The Voting Rights Act and the Transformation of American Democracy. May tells WBHM’s Andrew Yeager work was well underway before Bloody Sunday.
~ Andrew Yeager, June 07, 2013
A former plantation becomes a space for healing, art and reparative history
Through a powerful blend of creative interpretation and ancestral memory, an Alabma town reckons with its past and begins to write a new chapter of shared truth.
Deadly listeria outbreak leads to recall of ready-to-eat fettuccine Alfredo meals
A nationwide listeria outbreak has been linked to 17 illnesses, and three deaths, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection.
As courts review military in L.A., immigration enforcement accelerates
Immigration enforcement speeds up in L.A. regardless of military presence
On Juneteenth, she celebrates the role quilts may have played in Underground Railroad
Edith Edmunds, who is 99 years old, the art of quilt making is inextricably linked to the Black struggle for freedom. That's why she plans to be sewing Thursday on Juneteenth.
Top House Armed Services Democrat advises against U.S. military strike in Iran
NPR's Steve Inskeep asks Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, about U.S. policy on the conflict between Israel and Iran.
Birmingham’s poet laureate releases ‘The Other Revival’ book for Juneteenth
Birmingham’s first poet laureate Salaam Green released a new book this week to coincide with the Juneteenth holiday. The Other Revival features poems inspired by descendants of Black enslaved people and white descendants of a central Alabama plantation.
