Debbie Elliott
NPR National Correspondent Debbie Elliott can be heard telling stories from her native South. She covers the latest news and politics, and is attuned to the region's rich culture and history.
For more than two decades, Elliott has been one of NPR's top breaking news reporters. She's covered dozens of natural disasters 鈥� including hurricanes Andrew, Katrina and Harvey. She reported on the aftermath of the 2010 Haiti earthquake, introducing NPR listeners to teenage boys orphaned in the disaster, struggling to survive on their own.
Elliott spent months covering the nation's worst man-made environmental disaster, the 2010 BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, documenting its lingering impact on Gulf coast communities and the complex legal battles that ensued. She launched the series "The Disappearing Coast," which examines the oil spill's lasting imprint on a fragile coastline.
She was honored with a 2018 Gracie Award from the Alliance for Women in Media Foundation for crisis coverage, in part for her work covering the deadly white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, and the mass murder of worshippers at a church in Sutherland Springs, Texas. She was part of NPR's teams covering the mass shootings at Charleston's Emanuel AME Church and the Pulse Nightclub in Orlando.
Elliott has followed national debates over immigration, healthcare, abortion, tobacco, voting rights, welfare reform, same-sex marriage, Confederate monuments, criminal justice and policing in America. She examined the obesity epidemic in Mississippi, a shortage of public defenders in Louisiana, a rise in the incarceration of girls in Florida and chronic inhumane conditions at state prisons in Alabama and Mississippi.
A particular focus for Elliott has been exploring how Americans live through the prism of race, culture and history. Her coverage links lessons from the past to the movement for racial justice in America today.
She's looked at the legacy of landmark civil rights events, including the integration of Little Rock's Central High, the assassination of Mississippi NAACP leader Medgar Evers, the Montgomery bus boycott and the voting rights march in Selma, Alabama. She contributed a four-part series on the 1968 assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. in Memphis, Tennessee, which earned a 2019 Gracie Award for documentary.
She was present for the re-opening of civil rights era murder cases, covering trials in the 16th Street Church bombing in Birmingham, the murder of Hattiesburg, Miss., NAACP leader Vernon Dahmer and the killings of three civil rights workers in Neshoba County, Miss.
Elliott has profiled key figures in politics and the arts, including former Attorney General Jeff Sessions, historian John Hope Franklin, Congressman John Lewis, children's book author Eric Carle, musician Trombone Shorty and former Louisiana Governor Edwin Edwards. She covered the funerals of the Queen of Soul Aretha Franklin, and the King of the Blues BB King, and she took listeners along for the second line jazz procession in memory of Fats Domino in New Orleans.
Her stories give a taste of southern culture, from the Nashville hot chicken craze to the traditions of Mardi Gras to the roots of American music at Mississippi's new Grammy Museum. She's highlighted little-known treasures such as North Carolina artist Freeman Vines and his hanging tree guitars, the magical House of Dance and Feathers in New Orleans' Lower 9th ward, a remote Coon Dog Cemetery in north Alabama and the Cajun Christmas tradition of lighting bonfires on the levees of the Mississippi River.
Elliott is a former host of NPR's newsmagazine All Things Considered on the weekends, and is a former Capitol Hill Correspondent. She's an occasional guest host of NPR's news programs and is a contributor to podcasts and live programming.
Elliott was born in Atlanta, grew up in the Memphis area, and is a graduate of the University of Alabama. She lives in south Alabama with her husband, two children and a pet beagle.
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Severe storms have hit Alabama, Mississippi and Tennessee, killing more than 30 people and leveling buildings throughout the South.
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A dispute over a state law requiring abortion providers to have hospital admitting privileges goes before the U.S. Court of Appeals. Critics say such laws create a de facto ban on abortion. -
A flood protection authority is suing to try to hold the oil and gas industries responsible for Louisiana's land crisis. But policymakers are trying to stop the lawsuit, saying it's bad for business. -
The restaurant at the center of a lawsuit involving celebrity chef Paula Deen has closed. Uncle Bubba's Seafood & Oyster House in Savannah, Ga., surprised employees by handing out final paychecks Thursday. Deen owned the eatery with her brother Bubba Hiers. A 2012 lawsuit accused the two of sexual harassment and racial discrimination.
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The lives of fishermen in Alaska were forever changed after the Exxon Valdez oil spill more than two decades ago. They're still haunted by litigation, bankruptcy and herring that haven't returned. -
The tiny fishing town of Cordova, Alaska, has weathered disruption in every facet of life since an oil tanker ran aground in 1989, spilling millions of gallons of oil into Prince William Sound. -
As electronic cigarette companies get bold with advertising, anti-smoking groups fear the ads will lure teens and get them hooked on nicotine. -
Wednesday in New Orleans, a federal jury convicted former Mayor Ray Nagin on 20 of 21 corruption counts. The two-term mayor was in office when Hurricane Katrina struck and was the public face of the city during the city's rebuilding. Federal prosecutors say that it was during this time he took bribes to steer rebuilding contracts to businessmen.
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The children of Martin Luther King Jr. are embroiled in yet another legal battle 鈥� this time, over control of the late civil rights leader's Bible and Nobel Peace Prize.
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Rodney Scott's legendary South Carolina barbecue cookhouse went up in flames last year, so friends of the pit master cooked up a plan to help him rebuild. Scott is now making a comeback with his Bar-B-Que in Exile Tour and bringing people together with his whole hog barbecue.
