Jerri Green, Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris and director of the Shelby County Department of Corrections Anthony Alexander ...

The Shelby County Youth Justice and Education Center in November 2025. Photo by Andrea Morales / MLK50 Advocates are asking for a citizen review board to ...

Left: Thermal drone imagery captured by Floodlight shows more than a dozen unpermitted turbines operating at xAI’s gas plant ...

Friends and family of the youth incarcerated at the Youth Justice and Education Center walk through its halls following a ...

Memphis Mayor Paul Young delivers his State of the City address at First Baptist Church Broad in Binghampton on Tuesday. Photo by Kevin Wurm / MLK50 / ...

Drug Enforcement Administration and Homeland Security Investigations agents working with the Tennessee State Highway Patrol search a car during a traffic ...

Black mold grows on the ceiling of the bathroom at Pinebrook Pointe in July 2025. Photo by Kevin Wurm/MLK50/CatchLight Local/Report for America While city ...

Jessica James had to get up and down that ramp. Her job at FedEx’s World Hub was to help ensure the trucks in her area were loaded and unloaded on time. That meant navigating forklifts on sloped ramps ...

David spent eight months incarcerated at the Youth Justice and Education Center. Center portrait by Kevin Wurm / MLK50 / CatchLight Local / Report for America; Image of the Shelby County Youth and ...

Easter Knox (center) stands for a portrait at her home. Knox is a longtime Boxtown resident. Photos by Lucy Garrett for MLK50 Easter Knox’s brick home in Boxtown has a garden, space for her dog to run ...

Crepe myrtle branches have grown over the Velsicol sign on Jackson Avenue near Warford Street. The company’s chemical plant shut down in 2012. Photo by Andrea Morales / MLK50 Velsicol was a chemical ...

In spring 2023, MLK50 learned Memphis and Shelby County were remediating lead poisoning hazards from far fewer homes than they were pre-pandemic. In the following months, we educated ourselves on the ...