Barry Yeoman
@barryyeoman
Freelance journalist in North Carolina who writes longform stories about political, social, and environmental issues. Web site: . Newsletter: . Teaching: Duke University.
King returned home to a rental apartment in Habitat for Humanity's Musicians' Village in New Orleans' Upper Ninth Ward. That was supposed to be the happy ending. (3/6)
Over the decades that followed, King built a worldwide reputation for his gritty country blues. He outlasted most of his generation. But he also suffered crushing hardships along the way, including shootings, stabbings, addiction, and Hurricane Katrina, which displaced him for two years. (2/6)
Chris Rose's newspaper columns after Hurricane Katrina helped channel all of New Orleans' grief and rage. Carrying a city's collective trauma broke him; he slid into addiction and lives in the woods with end-stage cirrhosis. This year he's back in Louisiana for one last Mardi Gras. archive.ph/jD6cz.
My colleague @frankabruni.bsky.social on U.S. Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina: "The liberation of a conscience does wonders for a man." #ncpol www.nytimes.com/2026/02/09/o... Also, here's the X post that helped spark the column.
In 1999, Paul Kvinta inherited a terracotta pot that was said to be from the Maya Classic Period. He wondered if he had any right to possess it and what it might entail to repatriate it. He wrote about the ethical rabbit hole for National Geographic. archive.ph/Z1p8N.
The Internet Archive now has three video recordings of the "Inside CECOT" story that 60 Minutes pulled off the air at the last minute. They can be viewed and downloaded. archive.org/details/insi...
Thanks, everyone, for the overwhelming response to our Guardian investigation of how dollar-store industry overcharges vulnerable customers. I'm proud to say that, all day yesterday, we ran neck-and-neck with a drunk raccoon. (1/2)
An update on Fernando Vazquez, the U.S. citizen who was hauled away from a construction site in Cary, North Carolina. From Willie Daniely at WRAL. www.wral.com/news/local/f... #ncpol
Immigration officers hauled away a construction worker in Cary NC. "A half mile up the road, they looked at his wallet and saw he was a citizen," said his supervisor. "They pulled him out of the van and threw his wallet out the window. He had to walk back here." #ncpol www.cbs17.com/news/local-n...
“What motivates you to do this work?” Here’s a 41-second preview of my interview with attorney Ebony Woodruff, who has devoted her career to stemming Black land loss: www.instagram.com/p/DOQvgMTkaoG And the full interview, published by A Peace of My Mind: apeaceofmymind.org/2025/09/04/e...
Photographer John Noltner and I woke up at 4 a.m. to catch the good light in Dulac, Louisiana. His photos made it worth it. www.instagram.com/p/DNsyQ1B4p53
Chief Devon Parfait became a climate refugee in 2005 when his family lost their home to Hurricane Rita. Now, at 28, he leads the Grand Caillou/Dulac Band of Biloxi-Chitimacha-Choctaw and is working to protect and restore coastal Louisiana. My interview with him: apeaceofmymind.org/2025/08/21/c...
So are local grocery stores, neighborhood music clubs, affordable houses. And yet. We met people who have planted their stakes in that marshy ground, saying: We’re still here. We’re not going away. This place is too precious to abandon. (2/4)
Sometimes the writer doubles as a light holder. www.instagram.com/p/DMnnTrqsmlE/
Today, photographer John Noltner and I explored the southern end of the Mississippi River with coastal scientist Alex Kolker, who is studying how a large natural breach called Neptune Pass is depositing sediment and rebuilding delta land. More from John: www.instagram.com/p/DMgwsXAMfE2/
Scenes from today's interview with Kristian Bailey, who grows natural dye plants and African diaspora-centered plants at Orais Hand farm in Lower Coast Algiers outside New Orleans. Thanks, John Noltner, for letting me be part of this project, and for these photos. www.instagram.com/p/DMY-rkAMvA...
Grateful to be traveling in Louisiana with photographer John Noltner, whose project, A Peace of My Mind, uses storytelling and art to bridge divides and build communities. Here's his report from yesterday, when we interviewed land-justice advocate Ebony Woodruff: www.instagram.com/p/DMWp-prsA5...
Alligator Alcatraz recalls strongman Leander Perez, who ruled Plaquemines Parish LA until the 1960s. He fitted an old fort in the swamps with barbed wire and flood lights and threatened to incarcerate civil-rights workers there. From Dutch historian Maarten Zwiers: link.springer.com/chapter/10.1....
MY LATEST: Humans aren't the only ones who call each other by name. So might elephants, marmosets, and green-rumped parrotlets. Studying them could offer clues to the evolution of language—a scientific mystery and source of much contention. @nationalwildlife.bsky.social www.nwf.org/Magazines/Na...
What it's like to work inside the U.S. Department of Justice right now: archive.md/ci2tb.
This is why journalists make public record requests: the real worries of policymakers come out in those internal documents. From state-government watchdog reporter Sara Gentzler at Nebraska's Flatwater Free Press: buff.ly/4klFXcQ. @flatwaterfreep.bsky.social @saragentzler.bsky.social
But nothing disappears fully from the Internet. Here’s an archived link to the disappeared page: archive.ph/u2rVm. For now, Trump's NPS has not removed the main page for the Pauli Murray family home. But just in case, here’s a permanent link for that, too: archive.ph/QCimR. (8/8)
As the NPS web page noted, at least one historian has asserted that “Murray identified as a transgender man but did not have the information or acceptance available during her lifetime to describe it.” (6/X)
I wrote about Murray back in 2020 for the Carolina Alumni Review. It’s some of my proudest work. I want to re-up the article today. You can read it in as a PDF: barryyeoman.com/wp-content/u... (4/X)
Her law-school scholarship laid down a theory that proved critical to the desegregation case Brown v. Board of Education. Her writing planted the seed for Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which outlawed job discrimination on the basis of sex. (2/8)
🧵During the most isolating part of the Covid-19 pandemic, I used to walk past Pauli Murray’s childhood home almost daily. Just seeing it brought me comfort. Murray—civil-rights attorney, Episcopal priest and saint, author, feminist pioneer, Black queer person—knew how to play the long game. (1/8)
From @katz.theracket.news' column on President Trump's Guantánamo announcement. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt has said that “the first flights from the United States to Guantánamo Bay with illegal migrants are underway.” @dissentmag.bsky.social. www.dissentmagazine.org/online_artic...
#intropost Hi Bluesky. I'm a freelance journalist who tries to put human faces on complex issues. I also teach at Duke and Wake Forest. I'll be posting my favorite longform narrative in all media, plus my own work and my students' too. Here's me as a baby journalist in 1990. Photo: Sadie Bridger.