Photo Gallery – “Renewing America Together” Panel

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Numerous states have passed anti-SLAPP laws that provide mechanisms to have frivolous, malicious lawsuits dismissed before they can create harm. Several southern states, however, do not have anti-SLAPP laws and publishers in those states take on more risk when they publish than their counterparts in states with anti-SLAPP laws. Jared Schroeder of the University of Missouri and a member of the Overby Center panel of experts writes that more anti-SLAPP laws are needed to protect freedom of expression.
The names of Confederate leaders are back on military bases in the South, but the honorees are from a different era and have the same names that were moved by Congress. There seems to be a sense that the Trump administration is playing politics with the military and ignoring a bipartisan move by Congress, writes Tony Pederson of the Overby Center.
A new documentary film on Soggy Sweat’s iconic Whiskey Speech will be presented at a program in October by the Overby Center for Southern Journalism and Politics. When Prohibition was still in effect in Mississippi and the issue of liquor a major point of political and social discussion, Judge Noah S. “Soggy” Sweat first delivered the speech at the King Edward Hotel in Jackson, Miss., in 1952.
Southern comedian Jeff Foxworthy has made the meme “you might be a redneck if…” famous. He tells Terry Mattingly of the Overby Center that since “we agree on about 85% of stuff,” he likes to stay in his own lane in his comedy routines.