Melissa Cooper

Jan 2, 2025 | smithsonianmag.com | Melissa Cooper

History | Descendants of people enslaved at the site are grappling with its complicated history while also honoring the region’s rich culture The route that runs straight through Darien, Georgia, and cuts across the marshes, rivers and creeks along coastal McIntosh County leads to a historic site: Butler Island, a once vast antebellum plantation.

Aug 5, 2024 | documentedny.com | Manhattan DA |Tatyana Turner |Fisayo Okare |Melissa Cooper

Just have a minute? Here are the top stories you need to know about immigration. This summary was featured in Documented’s Early Arrival newsletter. You can subscribe to receive it in your inbox three times per week here. ‘I have to find work’: Day Laborers face steep competition, slim job prospects:Newly arrived immigrants search for work as day laborers outside home improvement stores across Chicago. Many find few opportunities and precarious work conditions.

Jul 18, 2024 | documentedny.com | April Xiaoyi Xu |Rommel H Ojeda |Fisayo Okare |Melissa Cooper

This story was co-reported with THE CITY. Democratic Councilmember Susan Zhuang received a hero’s welcome in her Bensonhurst district Thursday afternoon, a day after she allegedly bit a police officer in a scuffle with NYPD officers during a protest against a forthcoming homeless shelter. She entered the standing-room-only press conference Thursday afternoon at a senior center four blocks away from the site of the forthcoming shelter to cacophonous applause and chants of her name.

Jul 18, 2024 | documentedny.com | Rommel H Ojeda |Fisayo Okare |Melissa Cooper |Amir Khafagy

In Trinidad and Tobago, Sundays often mean eating pelau for lunch, a traditional one-pot meal of rice, pigeon peas, coconut milk and meat. Beginning at age 12, Darlene Vincent began watching her mother in the kitchen. Pelau was one of the first meals she learned to perfect. “She used to sell at different events in Trinidad, parties, carnival,” says Vincent. “I’m from a family of 12. And we all had to cook growing up.

Jul 17, 2024 | documentedny.com | Manhattan DA |Melissa Cooper |Fisayo Okare |Tatyana Turner

On Monday, former President Donald Trump announced that Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance would be the vice presidential nominee. Documented dove into what Vance has said publicly about immigration. Here’s what we found about the VP pick:  Two years ago during Vance’s campaign to become a senator in Ohio, he centered the topic of immigration by speaking about it in his ads, and has said he found doing so to be “very effective” in winning over voters.