Black Agenda Report
Black Agenda Report
News, commentary and analysis from the black left.

  • Home
  • Africa
  • African America
  • Education
  • Environment
  • International
  • Media and Culture
  • Political Economy
  • Radio
  • US Politics
  • War and Empire

Black Elites, and Many Black Voters, Supported Mass Black Incarceration
25 Jul 2017
🖨️ Print Article

Historian, author and activist Paul Street has high praise for James Forman Jr.’s new book, Locking Up Our Own: Crime and Punishment in Black America. Forman is a professor at Yale Law School and a former public defender in Washington, DC. His book “fills a giant hole in the literature,” illuminating the role played by “Black elites in the rise of the mass incarceration system,” said Street, himself an expert on race and the U.S. penal system. “Many ordinary, working class Black voters in the 70s and 80s have actively supported the racially disparate war on crime and drugs that ended up producing racist mass incarceration,” said Street, whose latest book is titled They Rule: The 1% v. Democracy.


More Stories


  • Abayomi Azikiwe, Black Agenda Report Contributor
    United Nations Security Council Renews Mission for the Western Sahara as Independence Remains Elusive
    06 Nov 2024
    For more than five decades the Sahrawi people of Northeast Africa have been denied their rightful place in the international community.
  • Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
    BAR Book Forum: Nathan Kalman-Lamb and Derek Silva’s Book, “The End of College Football”
    06 Nov 2024
    In this series, we ask acclaimed authors to answer five questions about their book. This week’s featured authors are Nathan Kalman-Lamb and Derek Silva.
  • Clau O'Brien Moscoso
    APEC Summit Brings More US Troops to PerĂş Amid National Strike
    06 Nov 2024
    As the people of Peru continue to rise up against the illegitimate Boluarte regime, that state continues its collusion with the United States ahead of the APEC Summit.
  • Umar A Farooq
    US Elections 2024: Uncommitted Movement Splits After Taking Money From PAC Supporting Harris
    06 Nov 2024
    Volunteers started their own Uncommitted group after learning leadership took $400,000 from a PAC that doesn't support third-party presidential candidates.
  • Jake Johnston
    Haitian Government Hires US Security Contractor, but Questions Remain
    06 Nov 2024
    The United States failed to achieve its goal of a full U.N. mission in Haiti. That has not deterred U.S. puppets in that nation, as Haiti has enlisted the assistance of a security contractor with…
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us