Topher Sanders
I report on injustice of any kind, but particularly in race, inequality and the legal system.
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What I Cover
I report on injustice of any kind, but particularly in race, inequality and the legal system. I’m focused on how the second Trump administration will impact justice in America, but I’m always looking for under-covered stories that affect everyday folks.
My Background
In 2023, I was part of a team of reporters that exposed the challenges communities face when freight trains block railroad crossings for days, endangering schoolchildren. Before that, my colleagues and I produced the multipart investigation “Walking While Black,” which explored how jaywalking citations are disproportionately given to Black pedestrians, and was part of a team that probed President Trump’s family separation policy. The former won the Al Nakkula award while the latter won Peabody and George Polk awards and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service.
My work has spurred grand juries and investigations into prosecutors, changed federal rules and forced police departments to drop charges against the unlawfully arrested.
In 2016 I co-founded the Ida B. Wells Society for Investigative Reporting, a nonprofit working to increase the number of investigative reporters and editors of color. I am a graduate of Tuskegee University and I started my journalism career at the Montgomery Advertiser in Alabama.
You can send me feedback, story tips and documents via email at [email protected], or by Signal or WhatsApp at 904-254-0393
‘Only White People,’ Said the Little Girl
On a playground, the messy birth of a 5-year-old's “otherness.”
Videos Surface of a Death in Custody the LAPD Didn’t Want Released
Vachel Howard was arrested for driving under the influence. Hours later, he was dead. Here‘s what happened inside an LAPD jail.
System Failures
Houston cases shed light on a disturbing possibility: that wrongful convictions are most often not isolated acts of misconduct by the authorities but systemic breakdowns — among judges and prosecutors, defense lawyers and crime labs.