Social Justice


NC native and NBA great Chris Paul at his 2022 graduation from Winston-Salem State University. Paul's Social Change Fund United has given a small business grant to a Black-owned juice bar in his native city. (Image via Social Change Fund United on Facebook)
North Carolina Black-Owned Business Lands Grant Money From NBA Stars, Including NC Native Chris Paul

Owner William Fulton plans to use the grant money to expand his business’ sales market into other parts of North Carolina.

The Pride flag flies in uptown Charlotte. (Shutterstock)
Feeling Generous This Holiday Season? Our Picks for Worthy Do-Gooders to Donate To In North Carolina

It's been a perilous year for voting rights and women's health, among other things. Here's who is helping if you want to contribute.

Students at McLean High School in McLean, Va., walk out of classes Tuesday, Sept. 27, 2022.  Student activists held school walkouts across Virginia on Tuesday to protest Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin's proposed changes to the state's guidance on district policies for transgender students that would roll back some accommodations.  (AP Photo/Matthew Barakat)
The Conservative Attack on School Curriculum Is Here, North Carolina. We Must All Be Prepared.

As right-wing groups pour money into local school board races, a Charlotte historian breaks down the conservative movement to limit the teaching of U.S. history, censor books on sex and sexuality, and oppress LGBTQ students.

A NC bookstore owner curates her book selection by focusing on the joys of Black childhood. (Shutterstock)
Why Children’s Books Centering Black Children Are So Important

For Banned Books Week, a North Carolina bookstore owner on raising a generation of Black children that see themselves on the page.

Amanda Darrow, director of youth, family and education programs at the Utah Pride Center, poses with books that have been the subject of complaints from parents in Salt Lake City on Dec. 16, 2021.  The wave of attempted book banning and restrictions continues to intensify, the American Library Association reported. Numbers for 2022 already approach last year's totals, which were the highest in decades. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, File)
Why Banning Books Is A Jim Crow Practice

For Banned Books Week, an N.C. State professor of English explains how the recent surge in bans is targeting Black people and LGBTQ people.

The late U.S. Sen. Jesse Helms, in a 2005 file photo. (Photo by Andrew Councill/MCT/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
North Carolina Republicans Are Overdue for a Reckoning on Jesse Helms

GOP candidates Ted Budd and Richard Dietz were booked to headline a dinner with Helms’ name last weekend. But what does Helms’ bigoted views say about them?

Robinson, who was elected in May, called on Gov. Roy Cooper and Attorney General Josh Stein, to provide additional resources for local police, to visit Enfield, and to denounce the racist intimidation. To refuse, Robinson said, would make them complicit in the threats. (Photos by Michael McElroy/Cardinal & Pine.)
A New Black Mayor in Eastern NC Removed a Confederate Monument. Then Came the Racist Threats.

In May, the majority Black town of Enfield elected one of just a few Black mayors in its 300-year history.