Debbie Elliott

The controversial judge lost a winnable race for the GOP in 2017 as allegations of sexual assault and misconduct against teen girls surfaced from decades ago.

The Clotilde was discovered last month in the Mobile River, bringing new attention to a small community founded by African captives who were brought to the U.S. on the ship.

NPR's Mary Louise Kelly speaks with attorney Hugh Culverhouse, who pledged $26.5 million to the university. The $21.5 million he had given so far was returned and his name removed from the law school.

Louisiana is the latest state where lawmakers have voted to ban most abortions with no exceptions for cases of rape or incest. The state's Democratic governor says he will sign the bill into law.

"Disappear? We're not going to do that," she said. She went 10 times to the courthouse before the registrar would sign her up to vote. Then she worked to guard the right and never missed an election.

Critics say a plan to build new prisons won't solve the entrenched, underlying issues in the state prison system that have been found to be unconstitutional.

Alabama must rectify the dangerous conditions this week or face a Justice Department lawsuit. Critics say plans to build new prisons won't solve issues that have been found to be unconstitutional.

The law bans nearly all abortions and is among the most restrictive in the country. It's part of a broader anti-abortion strategy to prompt the U.S. Supreme Court to reconsider the right to abortion.

Lawmakers in Alabama are taking up an abortion bill Tuesday. If passed, it would be the strictest in the nation and its backers hope it paves the way for a Supreme Court decision on Roe v. Wade.

A grassroots drive to preserve a historic building in downtown Atlanta is highlighting the city's somewhat forgotten role in early country music.

The House overwhelmingly passed a bill Tuesday that could become the country's most restrictive abortion ban. It would make it a crime for doctors to perform abortions at any stage of a pregnancy.

"I'm acknowledging the fact that we didn't pay attention to the internal culture," says interim President Karen Baynes-Dunning.

The U.S. Justice Department said Wednesday that conditions in Alabama prisons are unsafe and unconstitutional and result in deadly harm.

A civil rights investigation into the Alabama prison system by the Department of Justice finds conditions unsafe and unconstitutional. Violence, understaffing and crowding are common.

After a deadly white supremacist rally in 2017, once-marginalized voices in Charlottesville, Va., are demanding to be heard by the City Council. That has led to a debate over civility.

As part of NPR's Kitchen Table Conversations, we revisit an entrepreneur in West Atlanta who wants to preserve the culinary traditions of a neighborhood even as it gentrifies and changes.

Virginia's governor and attorney general face calls to resign amid revelations they appeared in blackface decades ago. That's reviving a conversation around the history of blackface in our culture.

The controversies currently rocking Virginia politics are rooted in a historical legacy of racism that cannot be overcome overnight, says historian Gregg Kimball.

The three highest ranking statewide politicians in Virginia are embroiled in major controversies involving race and sexual assault. But the state's racial past starts with slavery 400 years ago.

A new NPR/Ipsos poll finds 7 in 10 Americans say the government shutdown is going to hurt the country and that Congress should pass a bill to reopen the government now while budget talks continue.