A Regional Conversation Across Alabama and Georgia

Room 214, Columbus State University

This event brings together students and communities across the Alabama–Georgia border to explore the shared challenges facing young people in the region.

Columbus has a history shaped by cotton, the Chattahoochee River, industrial labor, racial segregation, and long-standing disparities in opportunity. Today, the region continues to confront issues involving youth gun violence, racial disparities in violence affecting young people, poverty, and unequal access to opportunity and support.

Between 2000 and 2024, at least 84 people age 17 and younger were homicide victims in Columbus, Georgia. Sixty-nine—82 percent—were Black. From 2014 to 2024, gunshot wounds accounted for 37 of 56 juvenile homicides—66 percent.

Youth Violence, Racial Inequality, and Community Resilience

New Orleans has a long history shaped by racial segregation, economic inequality, and unequal access to opportunity. These conditions continue to affect young people today.

According to The Data Center, an average of more than 16 children were murdered each year in New Orleans between 1985 and 2023, with child homicides reaching 21 in 2022 and 25 in 2023. Recent peer-reviewed research has also linked racial and economic residential segregation in New Orleans to youth firearm homicide, while local data show significant racial disparities within the criminal legal system. Rewrite the Story brings the Lofton family's story to New Orleans to explore the connections between youth violence, trauma, racial inequality, incarceration, and community healing—and to ask what it would look like to support young people before violence and trauma become defining parts of their lives.

Florida’s Youth and the Unequal Path to Justice

Miami-Dade County has made significant progress in reducing youth arrests, but racial disparities remain. A University of Miami and Miami-Dade Economic Advocacy Trust analysis of more than 47,000 youth arrests from 2010 to 2022 found that Black youth represented approximately 17–18% of the county's 10–17-year-old population but accounted for 58% of youth arrests during that period. In 2022, Black male youth represented approximately 9% of the 10–17-year-old population but accounted for 52% of youth arrests.

At the same time, Miami-Dade continues to confront youth gun violence. In 2024, the county recorded 1,582 juvenile arrests involving 2,172 charges, including 190 firearm-related charges. Rewrite the Story brings the Lofton family's story to Miami to explore the connections between youth violence, trauma, racial inequality, incarceration, and the ways young people are perceived and treated by systems of authority. Through documentary film, art, music, and community dialogue, the event asks what it would look like to create stronger pathways toward healing, opportunity, and prevention.