VICTORIA, Texas — The City Council chambers usually feels quiet, and often a little stiff. Council members meet in the same chamber used by the municipal court judge, and it’s apparent. Elected officials sit on a raised dais and feel far away from the public they serve. The city’s public library, on the other hand,
On the Ground in EL PASO, Texas — At dusk on a Friday night in October, big, white buses pull up near the Greyhound station and dozens of parents and children emerge. Some clutch important documents or carry plastic bags filled with precious possessions. They file into the station, with its tile floors and green metal
On the Ground in SUMNER, Mississippi — The courthouse where Emmett Till’s murderers were acquitted has been restored to look like it did during his 1956 trial, when his abduction, torture and murder shocked and shamed the nation. It’s an unassuming and stately building. Rows of identical brown seats face the flags of Mississippi and
On the Ground — On a muggy July evening, I sat on the dusty wooden floor of a cluttered one-bedroom house in Fitzgerald, Georgia, with notebook and pen in hand. Andres Diego and his wife, Wyona, sat across from me on a leaky queen-sized air mattress, speaking softly over the hum of a window unit on
On the Ground — Central Mississippi Correctional Facility, one of the state’s three main prisons, is located in a sparse pocket of the town of Pearl, a few minutes outside of Jackson. To reach its gates, I drove south from the newsroom one July morning, exiting the interstate and winding through a couple of two-lane roads
On the Ground in JACKSON, Miss. — It was almost Independence Day and Lee Eric Evans straightened a flag pole on his aunt’s front porch and respectfully unfurled an American flag so that it hung properly. He wanted to make sure it didn’t touch the ground. It was July 3 and Lee, 26, was fussing
On the Ground — Nothing beats the downtown Dallas skyline at dusk. The bright green glow of Bank of America Plaza. The flashing lights of Reunion Tower. The orange fade of the western sky reflecting on every window around. This sight has always inspired faith in me. Not faith in a higher power or religion, but