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UAW to be put to the test this week in Alabama Mercedes-Benz union vote

May 13, 2024
Starting Monday, around 5,200 workers at a Mercedes-Benz assembly-and-battery complex near Tuscaloosa, Alabama, will begin voting on whether to join the UAW.
Above, people celebrate at a United Auto Workers vote watch party on April 19, in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
Elijah Nouvelage/Getty Images

Auto workers union drive heads south

May 7, 2024
The United Auto Workers are getting pushback from Southern Republicans, but gains in Detroit are driving interest in Alabama and elsewhere.
An office in a strip mall is headquarters for UAW organizing at the Mercedes-Benz complex in Vance, Alabama.
Mitchell Hartman/Marketplace

Water contamination in Black communities doesn't stop at Flint or Jackson

Jun 19, 2023
"When I was traveling throughout the South, I visited 11 cities. Every single city had water problems, had a water boil notice within the last year, or had reported having brown water trickling through their faucets," said reporter Adam Mahoney.
A resident of Beaumont, Texas looks on as the city attempts to flush out contamination from its water lines.
Courtesy Adam Mahoney

New home sales rise in the South and West, but sag in Northeast

Mar 24, 2023
Affordability is attracting people to sunnier climes — and that's helping to heat up those regions' economies.
"The fastest-growing cities nationwide are located in the South and West, so builders are responding to that demand," says Odeta Kushi, deputy chief economist at First American.
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Civil rights tourism sees more demand and destinations

Jan 12, 2018
From new attractions in Atlanta to a U.S. Civil Rights Trail, tourism around civil rights history is growing.
Tom Houck runs a three-hour in-depth civil rights tour in Atlanta. It's one of several across the South.
Renata Sago/Marketplace

The Edelmans: 50 years of fighting for equality

Jul 21, 2016
The couple who met on Kennedy's Delta tour and have carried on his torch for change.
 Marian Wright Edelman (foreground, right) escorts Robert Kennedy (center with back to camera) on his historic tour of the Mississippi Delta.
Courtesy of James Lucas Estate

Is unemployment really worse in the South?

Nov 3, 2014
Jobless rates are up in some Southern states. But the numbers may be misleading.

For public good, not for profit.

At some Wal-Marts, health care in your shopping cart

Sep 23, 2014
Wal-Mart is opening its own health clinics at some stores in the rural South.

High cotton and southern language

Jul 23, 2014
Finding economic history in Southern expressions.

Turning a new leaf can prove elusive in tobacco-built South

Jul 22, 2014
Mullins, South Carolina is a small town with a big past and a long memory.