The New York Times – When movie crews descended on Jackson in 2010 to film “The Help,” based on Kathryn Stockett’s novel about the city’s maids in the 1960s, they transformed the streets of its trendiest neighborhood into a retro backdrop. Given locals’ loyalty to mom-and-pop stores like Brent’s Drugs, where you can still sit at the counter and order a chocolate malt, it didn’t take much to pull off cinematic time travel. This year, Jackson will recall one of its most difficult moments — June 12, 1963, when the civil rights activist Medgar Evers was shot in his driveway by a white supremacist. Events this June, including a civil rights city tour, film festival and gala, will celebrate Mr. Evers’s life.

Pacific Standard – Paine High School was a shambles when Jim Sporleder arrived to serve as its new principal in the spring of 2007. Housed in a run-down, brown-brick building with metal security screens on its windows, the “alternative” secondary school served 77 of Walla Walla, Washington’s most challenging students. And for years, by nearly all accounts, it had served them exceedingly poorly.

Associated Press – On a recent afternoon in this Mississippi sweet potato farming town of 1,300, a group of immigrants gathered in the safe haven of the Catholic Charities office to discuss visa options.

The conversation quickly turned to the immigration bill being debated in the state Legislature, and talk of what to do if it passes.

The New York Times – His nickname was Scarface, the legacy of a brutal knife attack on a dark Houston street three decades ago that left his left cheek permanently marred. Friends and neighbors in Texas said that he could be gruff and intimidating, and that he often stood outside his house at night smoking and talking on his cellphone in a language they did not understand.

The Nation – Diana, a slight, 30-year-old office manager wearing a smart blouse and pencil skirt, has a tired note in her voice. In the privacy of her office, she has spent the afternoon discussing an event in her life that she previously never recounted to anyone. She is talking about her abortion. Or maybe her miscarriage. She’s glad she never has to know which.