Over the past two decades, debt buyers—companies that buy old debts for pennies on the dollar—have filed millions of debt collection lawsuits and obtained millions of default judgments, against low-income New Yorkers, mostly those in predominantly Black and brown neighborhoods. 2022 Grantee New Economy Project explores the decades-long legal tactic disproportionately impacting disadvantaged New Yorkers and the legal progress being made to remedy this significant issue.

Foundation President Jerry Hartman recounts his 1972 visit to Philadelphia, Mississippi, the site of the murders of three civil rights workers in June 1964, and his harrowing experience with local law enforcement that underlined the state's commitment to hiding its violent and racist history.

In light of the recent argument at the Supreme Court in the Dobbs case, the Barbara McDowell Foundation caught up with 2021 grantee Gender Justice to discuss updates on their grant-funded case and the implications of the Supreme Court’s potential ruling on the Dobbs case.