Sue Sturgis
Sue Sturgis is the editorial director of the Institute for Southern Studies.
Recent Articles
Students Declare Nationwide Boycott of Wendy's Over Farmworker Concerns
Taco Bell, Burger King, McDonalds, and Walmart are already party to the worker-protection contract the targeted fast-food chain refuses to sign.
Mar 25, 2015
© Coalition of Immokalee Workers On March 22, students and activists from across the U.S. came together in St. Petersburg, Florida, for the Concert for Fair Food. There the group, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW), announced a nationwide student boycott of the Wendy's fast-food chain for its refusal to join in an agreement designed to protect the farmworkers who harvest the produce used by the chain. This article originally appeared at Facing South , the website published by the Institute for Southern Studies. Students from colleges and high schools across the U.S. declared a nationwide boycott of the Wendy's fast-food chain over its refusal to join the Fair Food Program created to help eliminate farmworker poverty and abuse. The announcement came at the Parade and Concert for Fair Food held on Saturday, March 21, in St. Petersburg, Florida, by the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW), a Florida-based group that promotes human rights for farmworkers. The boycott is part of...
Index: The 1 Percent Cleans Up in Florida and the South
Since 2009, Florida's elite captured all of the state's income growth—and then some.
Feb 09, 2015
This article originally appeared at Facing South , the website published by the Institute for Southern Studies. Percent of U.S. states that have experienced widening income inequality in recent decades: 100 Of the 50 states, number where the wealthiest 1 percent captured at least half of all income growth between 2009 and 2012: 39 Number of states where all of the income growth during that period went to the wealthiest 1 percent: 17 Number of those dramatically unequal states that are in the South: 5 * In Florida, among the most unequal states, percent change in the top 1 percent's income from 2009 to 2012: +39.5 Percent change in income for Florida's bottom 99 percent in that period: -7.1 Percent share of total income growth captured by Florida's wealthiest: 259.9 Income growth captured by the wealthiest residents of South Carolina, where the bottom 99 percent lost income: 192 By the wealthiest residents of, respectively, North Carolina, Louisiana and Virginia, among the other most...
Mailers Sent By Koch Group Appear Designed to Misdirect Voters in Key U.S. Senate Race
North Carolina election officials are investigating a mailer that the Americans for Prosperity Foundation sent to thousands of would-be voters in the state that contained bad information about registration.
Oct 07, 2014
This article originally appeared at Facing South , a website published by the Institute for Southern Studies. The North Carolina State Board of Elections announced this week that it is investigating a controversial mailer the conservative advocacy group Americans for Prosperity Foundation (AFPF) sent to thousands of state residents that contained inaccurate information about voter registration. The board was required to launch an investigation after a formal complaint was filed by Casey Mann, executive director of the N.C. Democratic Party. The complaint noted that the mailer, sent by the AFP Foundation—whose chairman is David Koch—included incorrect information on the registration deadline, where to send voter registration applications, and where to get answers to questions about registration. As Mann wrote in the complaint: The above referenced statements were certainly known by the Respondent to be false and known by the Respondents to have the effect of misleading,...
The Government Program That's Equipping Police Like an Occupying Military Force
A chilling index from the Institute for Southern Studies.
Aug 18, 2014
This index was originally published by Facing South , a website of the Institute for Southern Studies. ( Click here to subscribe to their newsletter.) Year in which Congress initially authorized the Defense Department to give excess arms and ammunition to law enforcement agencies for counter-drug activities, leading to the creation of what's come to be known as the 1033 program: 1990 Number of law enforcement agencies the program has given equipment to: more than 17,000 Percent of U.S. states with agencies participating in the program: 100 (Photo from the Richland County Sheriff's Department website.) Sheriff Leon Lott of Richland County, South Carolina and members of his department's Special Response Team with the military vehicle they call "The Peacemaker." Value of military equipment the program has transferred to police departments to date: $4.3 billion Value of military equipment the program transferred to police departments last year alone: nearly $500 million Estimated number...
How the GOP's Medicaid Politics Are Hurting Rural Southerners: An Index of Harm
Republican governors, empowered by the Supreme Court, have refused federal funds for the expansion of the program that provides health care to low-income people and the poor. Here's the human cost.
Aug 08, 2014
This index was originally published by Facing South , a website of the Institute for Southern Studies. Date on which Adam O'Neal, the Republican mayor of Belhaven, North Carolina, arrived in Washington, DC after walking 273 miles from his hometown to draw attention to the recent closure of his community's only hospital and to call for Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act to prevent more such closures: 7/28/2014 Date on which Belhaven's hospital, Vidant Pungo, closed after a failed effort by the town to take it over: 7/1/2014 Number of days after the closure that a local resident died when she suffered a heart attack and had to wait an hour for a helicopter to take her to the nearest hospital: 4 Amount in unpaid care Vidant Pungo had provided since 2011 to patients lacking health insurance: more than $2 million Number of rural U.S. hospitals that have closed since last year alone: 22 Number of those closures that were in states which blocked Medicaid expansion because of...
