COLORLINES - Brentin Mock

Brentin Mock

Reporting Fellow
New Orleans, LA

Brentin Mock is a New Orleans-based journalist who serves as Colorlines.com's Reporting Fellow on Voting Rights, covering the challenges presented by new voter ID laws, suppression of voter registration drives, and other attempts to limit electoral power of people of color. In his previous position as senior editor at The Loop 21, Brentin also covered electoral politics with a significant amount of reporting on voter ID issues.

In New Orleans, Brentin also works as web editor for the online, citizen-journalist driven blogsite Bridge the Gulf and helped launch the New Orleans online investigative news site The Lens. He previously worked at The American Prospect as a reporter and blogger covering environmental justice issues through a fellowship awarded by the Metcalf Institute for Environmental Reporting. Brentin also served on the staff of the national magazine Intelligence Report, published by Southern Poverty Law Center, investigating hate groups and anti-immigrant nativist extremists.

Brentin's professional career began in his native city of Pittsburgh, working as managing editor of the African-American community newspaper Renaissance News before joining the staff of the alternative newsweekly Pittsburgh City Paper. His work has been published in GOOD, The Root, The Daily Beast, Newsweek.com, The Grio, The Atlantic, Next American City, Truthout.org, Alternet, Vibe.com, XXL, The Source, and Religion Dispatches.

Follow Brentin at @bmockaveli.

Was Violent Felon Ban on Food Stamps Accepted With False Data?

by Brentin Mock on May 24 2013, 4:23PM

Louisiana Sen. Vitter claims massive fraud in his state is reason for felon ban on foods stamps, but no data supports that.

Topics: /NOW Blog, Politics

Racially Segregated ‘Black-Only Pods’ in Florida County Jail

by Brentin Mock on May 24 2013, 10:56AM

African-American inmates were kept in ‘black-only pods’ because jail officials thought it would make the prison safer.

Topics: Criminal Justice, /NOW Blog

Local Election Officials Show Bias Against Latino Voters, Especially on Voter ID

by Brentin Mock on May 23 2013, 11:15AM

Local election officials were three-and-a-half to four-times more likely to respond to the emails that came from the non-Latino name, Greg Walsh, than the Latino name, Luis Rodriguez.

Topics: /NOW Blog, Politics

Senate Accepts Deal to Kick Formerly Incarcerated Off Food Benefits

by Brentin Mock on May 23 2013, 10:13AM

If this amendment ends up in the farm bill and passes, it would hit African Americans particularly hard.

Topics: /NOW Blog, Politics

Voter Suppression Group Sues IRS For Delaying Their Voter Suppression

by Brentin Mock on May 22 2013, 1:04PM

True the Vote is suing the IRS because the government agency dared to look into their voter suppression activity

Topics: /NOW Blog, Politics

The ‘Motor Voter Act’ Turns 20 Today. Is It Aging Well?

by Brentin Mock on May 20 2013, 4:04PM

A new report says it should expand easy registration into agencies used by new citizens and Native Americans.

Topics: /NOW Blog, Politics

Why Are Non-Profits Banned From Politicking to Begin With?

by Brentin Mock on May 16 2013, 7:01AM

Tea party groups today claim non-partisanship, despite clear evidence otherwise, but it looks like the history of tax exempt status for non-profits wasn’t politically neutral to begin with.

Topics: /NOW Blog, Politics

True the Vote Says It Was Singled Out by IRS

by Brentin Mock on May 15 2013, 9:12AM

“This is what the beginning of tyranny looks like,” the group’s leader told Breitbart.com

Topics: /NOW Blog

Anti-Violence Blogger Among 19 Shot on Mother’s Day in New Orleans

by Brentin Mock on May 13 2013, 1:54PM

Journalist and documentarian Deborah “Big Red” Cotton was one of the 19 people wounded in the tragic shooting during a “second line” Mother’s Day parade yesterday. In total, ten men, seven women and two 10-year-old children were injured. Cotton had…

Topics: National Security, /NOW Blog, Schools & Youth

Three Key Graphs From New Census Report on Voting Rates by Race

by Brentin Mock on May 9 2013, 1:55PM

Census finally released a report on how people voted by racial categories. Here’s what you need to know.

Topics: 2012 Election, /NOW Blog, Politics

How the Sierra Club Learned to Love Immigration

by Brentin Mock on May 8 2013, 6:00AM

A racist fringe of the nation’s oldest and largest environmental group lost its battle over immigration. An inside look at the power struggle.

Topics: Environment, History

Is the ‘Pigford’ Pushback a Case of Resistance Against Reparations for Black Farmers?

by Brentin Mock on May 6 2013, 1:12PM

Ten scholars from major universities have risen to the defense of black farmers who were accused in a New York Times article of exploiting and defrauding a settlement made to remedy decades of discrimination in financial lending. In a letter…

Topics: Media, /NOW Blog

North Carolina Election Board Drops 56 HBCU Students From Voter Rolls Under Dubious Cause

by Brentin Mock on May 3 2013, 3:38PM

Close to 60 students at the historically black Elizabeth City State University were targeted by a county Republican Party chair who challenged their voter status for questionable reasons

Topics: /NOW Blog

North Carolina Clergy Jailed While Praying for ’21st Century George Wallace’ Governor

by Brentin Mock on April 30 2013, 1:35PM

Seventeen arrests were made at a North Carolina protest.

Topics: Budget Cuts, /NOW Blog, Politics

Black Voters Made History By Beating Whites to Polls Last November

by Brentin Mock on April 29 2013, 11:11AM

African Americans turned out to vote at a higher rate than white voters last November

Topics: /NOW Blog, Politics

North Carolina Students Protest Harsh Voter ID Bill

by Brentin Mock on April 26 2013, 4:00PM

North Carolina’s Republican-dominated legislature passed the Voter Information Verification Act through its House chamber Wednesday. If the bill passes the Senate, it would only need the governor’s signature to make it mandatory for voters to show photo identification in order…

Topics: /NOW Blog, Politics

‘Environmental Justice’ Soldiers On Without a King, Queen—or Major Dollars

by Brentin Mock on April 23 2013, 6:00AM

With the defeat of Big Green on climate-change, community-based, grassroots groups led by people of color are creating a blueprint for actual change. The EJ response to Superstorm Sandy is Exhibit A.

Topics: Environment