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ko bragg

@keaux

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writer, editor & professor. based in new orleans. mississippi forever. managing editor of @themargin_us

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a year ago

today i walked into a magazine store and witnessed the cover of @theatlantic’s May 2022 edition with my name on it. within, there’s multi-page feature story i wrote and reported about my stepdad’s and other Black elders’ fight against the erasure of the 1964 Freedom Summer murders that changed the world. today, this history is almost completely invisible in Philadelphia, Mississippi, despite the towns’ notoriety stemming from this ugly past. it’s the best thing i’ve ever written.

it’s in my nature to brush off celebrating myself. but it felt really good to see the public result of so many months of hard work.

thankful everyday for my Mississippi ancestors and elders who guide me in this work. the celebration, and every word i write, is for them. (link in bio) taken in Iconic Magazines by @keaux

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4 years ago

my latest byline is a goodbye to my favorite guy, my dad Obbie. we bonded over our love for the news and history and storytelling, and i am feeling eternally grateful, even through the grief, that i was able to tell part of his story while he was still here to share it.

one of my favorite quotes of his: “The truth is uncomfortable. The sun burns when you have to stand in it, but it cleanses.”

and another: “Look at it like this: It is your responsibility to tell the story. It’s my responsibility to give you the story. It wasn’t meant for you to live it. It was meant for you to tell it.”

💐🤍🌙☀️🫶🏽 taken in Philadelphia, Mississippi by @keaux

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22 days ago

hbd • happy birthday dump 🎀🎈 by @keaux

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a year ago

if you don’t read anything else in this caption, read this: go interview your family before they become ancestors.

im so blessed to have had to honor to do just that, and to tell a family story buried under generations of trauma for @theatlantic. it’s both online and in the June print issue (#linkinbio)

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Mississippi immediately felt like home to me. and now i know that’s because it’s always been. every migration away from this land has been a step toward the full-circle moment of reclaiming home.

i started my journalism career in the very same county my ancestors are from. it’s a place where generations of my family lived and worked the land and loved on each other. it’s also where tragedy struck.

in 1888, my great-great-great uncle Bob was lynched by a mob of more than 200 white men. he was accused of refusing to step off the sidewalk when he encountered a white man and woman walking to church. later, he found the white man standing amongst a group of other white men, and unloaded his clip in broad daylight, killing a white doctor—allegedly of course. we can’t know if any of this is true. it was national news and every paper from the NYT to the Boston Globe peddled the same narrative. only one black paper wrote about him and called my uncle Bob a martyr.

but what we do know, is that my great great grandfather Ike was with him that day. for some reason the lynch mob spared him. and without that gesture, our branch of the family tree never would’ve grown. as my auntie says: “we almost didn’t make it in this world.”

a generation or so later, my family would leave Mississippi behind, moving further and further north as part of the great migration. there was opportunity for them and elsewhere was also great loss in leaving their only homeland behind. my ancestors’ trauma also prevented them from talking about what happed to my uncle Bob. it’s been my Auntie, my mother’s sister pictured above, and her commitment to genealogical research that revealed the legacy of our uncle Bob to us. she’s my hero and every moment she’s shared with me to tell this story has been healing.

thank you to the iconic @_olivia_joan_ for the photos and the care 💖 by @keaux

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2 years ago

i’m really grateful for everyone in my life who’s handed me my flowers while i’m here to smell them.

slides 1-3: from a @teenvogue talk at The New School this September on “rethinking ambition.” surprise to no one i found multiple ways to bring up Mississippi.

slides 4-7: scenes from last week in Athens, where i spoke at @imeddgreece about some of the tech journalism i edit at @the.markup.

8+9 = bonus content because who knows when you’ll see me on the TL again

Ty @bellamayven for the perfect makeup and @genie_glam for the silk press from heaven

byeeeeeeee ✌🏽 by @keaux

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3 years ago

a seat at the Solange ballet 🩰 taken in Lincoln Center by @keaux

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4 years ago

💛❤️‍🔥💚 taken in Mexico City, Mexico by @keaux

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5 years ago

ya girl was recently on the cover of the @washingtonpost real estate section alongside an essay i penned about all the feels that came up while buying and moving into my beloved Nola house (follow her here @keauxheauxm).

so happy @ek_the_pj captured some of my favorite things: my French press ☕️, my beloved local Black-owned bookstore @baldwinandcompany, named for my favorite Leo and author, James Baldwin. and most importantly, i’m glad to see she captured the joy + laughter held in this space that i’m really blessed to call home. long live 1924 ⚜️ by @keaux

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5 years ago

throughout the pandemic, reading and double masking to get manicures with @nail.fool were some of my main lifelines, as there wasn’t much else to do safely in my new home. so, in the spirit of more things that are strictly joyful in this world that is often not, i present ✨✨@booksonnails ✨✨ go follow my lil bebe! by @keaux

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5 years ago

spoke at an investigative journalism conference about reporting on bias in this loud ass blazer because that’s who i am and imma do that anyway. let’s see if they invite me back 🥴 #NICAR20 taken in New Orleans Marriott by @keaux

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7 years ago

“Life isn’t fair, that’s something my mother always said. But I think it should be fair for kids.”
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For the last 2+ years I’ve been extraordinarily humbled to be invited into homes of people whose kids, boys and girls as young as 13 and 14, have spent what are supposed to be their best years behind bars on adult charges. This happens disproportionately to black kids and increasingly to black girls. Many of these kids have experienced intense trauma and loss, and are subsequently retraumatized by long stints in jails, without bond, awaiting trial often while in solitary. .
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In August, the @briefbutspectacular team from PBS @newshour came down to Jackson, Mississippi to do a series connected to my reporting on policing and kids charged as adults. .
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Thanks to my village for y’all’s support as I continue this work in Missisippi. Big shoutout to @glamourfreakmua for providing this glow so I felt as confident as possible while talking about a subject that can sometimes make me emotional. #LinkinBio if you want to watch again/share. taken in Jackson, Mississippi by @keaux

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8 years ago