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


  • x
    Stevie Wilson
    When I Heard of the Passing of Johanna Fernandez
    04 Aug 2026
    Johanna Fernandez touched many lives through her scholarship, activism, and belief that people themselves can change history and be "the ones we've been waiting for."
  • x
    Craig Mokhiber
    No, Israel does not have ‘a right to exist.’ Quite the contrary, actually.
    04 Aug 2026
    "Unlike the Zionist claim that 'Israel has a right to exist,' my assertion is rooted in international law. Of course, given Israel’s propensity for violating such laws, it’s no surprise they’re still…
  • x
    Black Alliance For Peace
    In Unwavering Solidarity with the African and Anti-Colonial Struggle: A Call for Unified Action Among the U.S. Left
    04 Aug 2026
    The recent report by the U.S. fascist state attacking Cuba and its allies serves as a glaring call for urgent and strategic unity among the broadest sectors of the U.S. left, and all people of…
  • x
    John Perry
    Nicaragua Banned US-Backed Coup Leaders From Elections, and Corporate Media Lost It
    04 Aug 2026
    Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega stated that when the country's next elections take place, none who promoted a violent anti-government insurrection in 2018 will be allowed to stand for office.…
  • x
    Gary Wilson
    They came to Spain for work. Washington called it an invasion.
    04 Aug 2026
    "Israel and Washington use Ceuta and Melilla to attack Spain for naming the genocide in Gaza. The enclaves are colonial relics. But the powers now raising the issue have no concern for African or…
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us