Welcome to The South Week at The Ringer. For the next several days, we’re celebrating — and reporting on — the richness of the region. You’ll find stories from all over the map, exploring topics such as the enduring legacy of Confederate monuments in Richmond and Montgomery, the evolution of Charleston barbecue, and the intersection of faith and football in Lubbock. We’re also ranking the best Southern rap albums, imagining the André 3000 mixtape we all deserve, and arguing about what even constitutes the South anymore. In the words of two great Southerners, nothin’ is for sure, nothin’ is for certain, nothin’ lasts forever.
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The South Week
The Ringer celebrates and reports on the richness of the region
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August 30, 2017
A Gatekeeper at the Intersection of Faith and Football
As scrutiny over the role of chaplaincies at public universities has intensified nationwide in recent years, Texas Tech’s chaplain has identified the stereotypes—and worked to combat them
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August 29, 2017
Joe McKnight Was the Future of Football in Louisiana
The former running back was once transcendent, a local legend who carried the hopes and dreams of an entire region. The way he died was so painfully ordinary.
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August 25, 2017
Sam Hunt Is the Future of Country Music
The Nashville superstar has managed to cultivate bro-country success and "Real Country" respect. The question is: Can he have both at the same time?
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August 25, 2017
The 20 Best Southern Rap Albums Ever, According to You
We argued, voted, voted again—and then asked you to tell us what we missed
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August 25, 2017
Touching Death: The Turbulent Life of One of America’s Last Snake-Handling Preachers
Three years after his father was killed during a service, Cody Coots carries on as pastor of the South’s most famous signs-following church in a town rife with drugs and poverty
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August 25, 2017
Assembling the André 3000 Album We All Deserve
The reclusive Outkast star hasn’t released a project in 11 years. We scoured his output since then to make an André LP of our own, complete with a Spotify playlist.
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August 25, 2017
Southern Rap Special: Best Albums, Dopest Mixtapes, and the Future of the Genre
A roundtable of Ringer staffers wrap up South Week with a discussion about Southern rap superlatives
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August 24, 2017
An Undocumented Activist in the Age of Trump
At age 32, Cesar Espinosa may not be eligible for American citizenship until he turns 60. But that isn’t stopping his fight to make Houston—and the nation—livable for immigrants.
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August 24, 2017
How a Fertilizer Accident Led to the Deadliest Industrial Disaster in American History
Seventy years ago, Texas City was a little-known shipping port on the southeast coast of Texas. Then, some ammonium nitrate caught fire, two freighters exploded, and the town was changed forever.
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August 24, 2017
Chef Michael Twitty Is Reclaiming Southern Food
The culinarian, whose book ‘The Cooking Gene’ was released earlier this month, talks about soul food’s unspoken ingredients
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August 23, 2017
How John Currence Is Using Food to Communicate in the Time of Trump
The activist chef thinks the dining room table could be the only place left where we can talk about politics
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August 23, 2017
In ‘C.S.A.: The Confederate States of America,’ the Confederacy Is Much Bigger Than the South
Revisiting the mockumentary that imagines a country in which the Confederate ideology was never defeated. What’s fiction and what’s real?
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August 22, 2017
NASCAR’s Southern Identity Crisis
At July’s Coke Zero 400 race in Daytona Beach, the sport reckons with its past—and future—amid shifts toward a more national scope
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August 22, 2017
The Soul of Barbecue Is Being Reimagined in Charleston
How two men and a tireless process define one of food’s greatest quests: to perfect cooked meat—whether hog or beef
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August 22, 2017
How Atlanta Is Taking Over the Entertainment Industry
Georgia’s generous tax incentives have lured production companies away from Los Angeles and New York, and the state’s homegrown initiatives are continuing to ripen
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August 21, 2017
Sorry, but Your State Is Not the South
The Ringer’s resident Southerners weigh in on which states (and cities) deserve to get the boot
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August 21, 2017
Which Classic T.I. Anthem Is the Most Important?
Between 2001 and 2006, Clifford "T.I." Harris blessed the city of Atlanta—and the world—with countless hits, odes, and bangers. But which of his anthems goes the hardest?
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August 21, 2017
The 20 Best Southern Rap Albums Ever
We argued, voted, voted again, and we’re standing by these classics
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August 17, 2017
The Summer the Confederate Monuments Came Crashing Down
After Charlottesville, cities around the country are removing statues commemorating the Confederacy. But will the two historic capitals—Richmond, Virginia, and Montgomery, Alabama—follow suit?