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Song for Charlie
We went to see one of jazz's great bassists, Charlie Haden, and his Quartet West. Rachel and Michael had never heard of him and had no interest in jazz, but …
Cochran, McDaniel: Bourbon vs. Populist, Again
The parallels between the Populist movement of the 1890s and today's Tea Party are striking, even though crucial differences also exist.
When You’re Down and Out
Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant, who rode into the Governor's Mansion decrying the evils of undocumented migrant workers, says he also doesn't want "unions involved in our businesses or our public …
The Immorality of Incarceration
Mariachi guitarist Johnny Mora's bout with drugs was years in his past, but the legacy of jail time it led to is as much a companion as his guitar when …
Last of the Letter Writers
Sandy Margolis, the last of the letter writers, died at age 74 two years ago this September.
‘All About the Food’
‘To want to open a restaurant can be a strange and terrible affliction.’
Smiling in Heaven
My old friend Ray Smithhart would have loved the irony of union-fighting manufacturer Nissan making a gift of $100,000 to the Medgar and Myrlie Evers Institute.
By the Handful
Fannie Lou Hamer, a folk philosopher of the Civil Rights Movement, knew what she was up against in a state and region where an entrenched hard-right oligarchy ruled at the …
City of the Dead
Memphis in 1878 became a city of the dead—people hiding behind shuttered windows and locked doors, the clickety-clack of wagons carrying the corpses to waiting gravediggers.
Attention Walmart Shoppers
Walmart's "chintzy" attitude toward the wages and benefits of its workers isn't news. What may be news to many, however, is just how bad it is for workers at Walmart …
The Dark Side
It was decades ago, but I'll never forget that night. I'm glad I wrote the details down in a journal.
Battle to Unionize Nissan
CANTON – Michael Carter hardly evokes the Hollywood image of a podium-pounding, fire-breathing labor agitator.
Not So Young Guns
OLIVE BRANCH, Miss.—I'm staring into the face of Marshal Wyatt Earp. It's not exactly as I remember him back when I was a 10-year-old would-be cowboy and Wyatt was on …
[Atkins] Modern-Day Servitude
I was a lowly intern at a major newspaper up north, sitting at my desk in a corner plotting my day when a small, elderly, bespectacled man walked past me …
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