Skip to content
SourceLineThe Black Civic Data Platform

Our mission is to make sure Black communities are not simply informed about the decisions shaping our future, but equipped to help make those decisions. An informed community is a powerful community.

Stories

Stories from October 2026

Each story starts with the national record, then breaks it down to your state, county, city and address: how it affects you, who decides and who pays. Newest first.

Showing 10 of 17 stories. See every story

Lead story · Voting power, by the numbers

How much power does the Black vote hold, from your city to Congress?

Nearly 30 million Black citizens can vote. Where that power sits, how many votes it takes to decide things, and who sets the rules, down to your address.

For years, much of my political work was organized around elections. I helped educate voters, worked with candidates and helped people get to the polls. I still believe in that work. Who holds office matters because the authority attached to the office is real.

Inside: When the majority changed, and the map did not · Our vote is already a force · Where the power sits · Who holds the majority where most of us live · How many votes it takes, and how many we left at home · Electing officials is one power. Deciding where the money goes is another. · Where we do not hold that authority, we still have options · What you can do before and after Tuesday · Where you live

Read the story › October 30, 2026 · 6 minute read

Black Men and the Vote

Black men believe in voting. Who is speaking to them?

92% of young Black men say voting matters, yet 3.3 million registered Black citizens did not vote in 2024. What the record shows, and what you can do.

Start with what is true and strong. Black men believe in voting. In a 2026 survey of more than 1,600 registered Black men ages 18 to 45 in Georgia, Michigan, Mississippi, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and South Carolina, 92% said voting is important.

Inside: Registered, and still at home · How the vote moved · Not absent, misread · What they say, and why it matters · In their own words, here in Georgia · Two things the record points to · Who pays · Who decides, from you up · What you can do this week · Where you live

Read the story › October 31, 2026 · 5 minute read

Proof of change: Wesley Chapel Road

What happened when Southwest DeKalb asked who decided?

Residents asked how care homes reached Wesley Chapel Road with no county vote. Within days the plan ended. Here is the record, in order.

Parents, alumni and homeowners around Southwest DeKalb High School did something this month that changed the record in a matter of days. They asked a plain question: how did a building project next to our school move forward without a public hearing, a county vote or a notice in the mail?

Inside: What was planned · How it reached the neighborhood without a vote · The sequence · Why Claratel says it ended the plan · Who pays · Still open · Who decides, from you up · What you can do this week · Where you live

Read the story › October 31, 2026 · 4 minute read

Literacy, by the numbers

How do we raise Black children's reading, state by state?

In New Jersey 1 in 4 Black fourth graders read at Proficient; nationwide it is 1 in 6. Where reading is rising, who decides, and what you can do.

I held a town hall for someone running for the Georgia State Senate, and I was standing among Georgia state legislators when the conversation turned to banned books and what the state was allowing schools to remove or restrict.

Inside: A question at a town hall · Where Black children are reading well · Where we stand · Who decides, and what we can do this week · Where you live

Read the story › October 30, 2026 · 4 minute read

Mind the Money: Black Mental Health

Who gets mental health care in Black communities, and who decides the money?

Black youth suicide rose 29.4% in five years as the national rate fell. Your state's numbers, where care is short, and who decides the money.

Start with what the record shows is holding. From 2018 to 2022, 8.0 of every 100,000 Black Americans died by suicide each year. For all Americans it was 14.0. In the ten states with the most Black residents, the Black rate ran from 5.1 in New York to 8.7 in California, and in every one of them it was lower than the rate for all residents.

Inside: Where we stand · Where the care is short · Where the money comes from · Who decides · What you can do · Where you live

Read the story › October 30, 2026 · 5 minute read

About these figures

Every figure on this page shows the year it describes. Public agencies release their numbers on their own schedules, often a year or more after the work of counting is done. The Census Bureau, for example, publishes its five year community survey each December, and the national reading test is given every two years. That is why some figures are not from this year. SourceLine updates each one as soon as the agency publishes it.

For some counties and small towns, SourceLine has not found meeting records online. Where it has not, we add them as they become available. A page that says SourceLine hasn’t updated a record yet means exactly that.