Stories

Mississippi

  • K10: How Women Are Rebuilding the Gulf Coast

    Ten years ago, Hurricane Katrina spawned the need for new construction and a skilled workforce all over the Gulf Coast. It also exacerbated already dire economic situations for low-income women in Mississippi. The Moore Community House , which serves low-income women and children in east Biloxi, found a way to address both of those needs when it launched its Women in Construction (WinC)...

  • Sophia Bracy Harris: Southern Rural Black Women's Initiative

    Sophia Bracy Harris is Executive Director of the Federation of Child Care Centers of Alabama (FOCAL) and Alabama Director of the Southern Rural Black Women’s Initiative for Economic and Social Justice (SRBWI). Her lifelong dedication to improving educational opportunities for children and their families has been recognized with the Rockefeller Public Service Award, Gleitsman Foundation “People...

  • Shirley Sherrod: Focus Areas

    Shirley and Charles Sherrod founded the Southwest Georgia Project for Community Education in 1961 to educate, engage and empower through advocacy and community organizing. SWGAP has successfully addressed school segregation, welfare rights, voter rights and education, housing, land loss, economic development and unfair policies affecting school children and families.

    After decades of...

  • Report Documents Hardships, Solutions for Rural Black Women and Children

    As the wealth gap in America widens, one group consistently finds itself at the bottom of the economic opportunity chasm. “On nearly every social indicator of well-being — from income and earnings to obesity and food security — Black women, girls and children in the rural South rank low or last.” So finds an eye-opening new study by the Southern Rural Black Women’s Initiative of Black Belt...