A car bomb attached to his left-turn signal killed Wharlest Jackson Sr., on February 27, 1967, in Natchez, Mississippi. Despite evidence pointing to the inner circle of the KKK, no one was ever charged in the death of the civil rights activist and father of five. The new feature-length documentary, American Reckoning, from Frontline and Retro Report, with support from Chasing the Dream, follows Jackson’s cold case, including the events leading up to the murder and the ensuing investigation.

2011 saw a record number of laws restricting abortion in U.S. states. It also saw a record number of state anti-immigrant laws. Coincidence? Maybe not. In 2000, 13 states were considered “hostile” to reproductive rights; by 2011, that number had doubled to 26 states, according to the Guttmacher Institute. 2011 was also a record year for anti-immigrant legislation. 

While a majority of Mississippi voters approved a bill last November to show a government-issued photo ID before casting a ballot, more than 75 percent of the state’s minority population voted to reject the measure, according to a new study by the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights (LCCR). The study, released this week, shows that voter preferences for the bill, which amends the state constitution, are polarized along racial lines. 

From New America Media: In Mississippi, voters go to the polls today to decide whether the state constitution should be amended such that a human egg, at the point of fertilization, becomes a person. When combined with Alabama’s recently enacted HB 56, widely seen as the nation’s toughest anti-immigrant piece of legislation, the result is a uniquely bad situation for migrant women.