Salvation South

Atlanta writer Nelson d. Ross always followed his heart, but he recently learned that his ticker needs some repair. He has high hopes for what comes next.

Two hundred years ago, a freed Charleston slave named Denmark Vesey attempted to lead a rebellion. To many Black people, he is a hero, but his name is still anathema to many whites.

When a band of yellow flies attacked Jennifer Kornegay in the coastal Alabama woods, she got intimately acquainted with some of the nastiest critters in the Southern ecosystem.

This week, we explore the country of hearts, avoid nasty yellow flies and learn some critical Southern history.

It’s a week of variety and food for thought at Salvation South.

Zeniya Cooley is a young Black writer who grew up loving “Gone With the Wind.” Today, she reckons with a world where books imagining a more inclusive world are banned while Old South tomes like “GWTW” go unchallenged.

An Arkansas native poet brings us pieces that remember an important figure in Southern Black history and that evoke the scorching heat of summer days.

Ernestine Crowell is the self-described “militant Black woman” who rides herd over the 105 members of Alabama’s House of Representatives. She is feared. She is beloved. She is one of a kind.

Norman Blake is a veteran keeper of the Tennessee mountains’ musical traditions. And a young act, the Po’ Ramblin’ Boys, is championing the same heritage.

Salvation South has lots of music for you this week — and a touching story about an important value: standing by the folks who fought alongside you.

In the late 1960s, a soul band called the Chevelles came together in Milledgeville, Georgia. By the time they graduated high school, they already had a hit record and had performed at Harlem’s legendary Apollo Theater. But they never got their due. Here’s their story.

Salvation South contributor Russell Worth Parker helped write “Always Faithful,” the story of how a U.S. Marine major worked to get his Afghan translator out of the country when it fell last year. Today, the translator is building a new life in Texas with his wife and four children. (With a review of the book by J.A. Dailey)