Debbie Elliott

The deep-rooted history and current disrepair of the aging Alabama bus fleet continue to affect its predominantly black riders.

#NPRreads is a weekly feature on Twitter and on The Two-Way. The premise is simple: Correspondents, editors and producers from our newsroom share the pieces that have kept them reading, using the #NPRreads hashtag. On Fridays, we highlight some of the best stories.

This week, we bring you four ...

Vitter was re-elected easily, even after he was caught up in the "D.C. Madam" prostitution scandal. But now that he's running for governor, it's coming back to haunt him.

Friends, family and colleagues recounted the human rights contributions of the late Julian Bond at a memorial service Tuesday for the former NAACP chairman. Bond died in August after a brief illness.

The murder of the 14-year-old black boy and subsequent trial before an all-white jury was an early landmark in the civil rights movement.

Candidates are expected to stop early and often in early primary state South Carolina. Now they're dipping deeper into the region after several states teamed to make their primaries March 1.

Key Underwood Coon Dog Memorial Graveyard in Cherokee, Ala., is a burial spot near a hunting camp and only coon hounds reside there. (This piece first aired on September 3 2012 on Morning Edition.

Former President George W. Bush is visiting the city on Friday in honor of the 10th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. His administration was criticized for how it dealt with the storm's aftermath.

President Obama visits New Orleans Thursday, on the eve of the 10-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina hitting the Gulf Coast.

The flooding in New Orleans 10 years ago was not because of Hurricane Katrina. It was the failure of the federally built levee system. On Monday night, residents remembered the lives lost.

Hurricane Katrina obliterated homes and drove out residents. Ten years later, the city is still struggling with how to handle the blight that remains in some wards — scars of an uneven recovery.

Ten years ago Hurricane Katrina devastated Bayou la Batre on the Alabama Gulf Coast. Five years later came the BP oil spill. The hardscrabble fishing hamlet has never recovered.

Former NAACP Chairman Julian Bond helped found the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and the Southern Poverty Law Center. He was 75.

After Hurricane Katrina wiped out the city 10 years ago, locals fought hard to preserve their deep-rooted cuisine. But devastation also brought opportunities for more experimental eateries to move in.

Beyond preserving his legacy, city leaders are calling to investigate the 1940 death of Elbert Williams, who is believed to be the first NAACP official killed for seeking voting rights for blacks.

Just outside this coastal city, five rivers converge in what feels like an alien world — what one conservationist calls "America's Amazon. It is the wildest, most diverse place ... in the country."

The oil giant BP has reached an $18.7 billion settlement with Gulf states and the federal government over the 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico — the worst in U.S. history.

Same-sex marriage may be legal according to the Supreme Court, but some counties have yet to issue marriage licenses in the wake of Friday's ruling.

The historic church, known as Mother Emanuel, was open for the first time since a gunman killed nine people there Wednesday night — in what authorities describe as a racially-motivated attack.