L. Joy is back on the porch and she invites us to imagine and build a freer, bolder democracy now, not decades from now. She walks us through the timeline from the Reconstruction era’s first Black-led institutions to today’s fights over gerrymandering, voter suppression, and district maps designed to mute Black electoral strength. Focusing on the South, where where more than half of Black Americans live and where political power is both concentrated and contested, L. Joy brings Brandon Upson to the front of the class to discuss the South as the frontline of American democracy.