Anti-Lynching March Set for January 15
“The time has come to pass anti-lynching laws in this country,” said former Delaware State University professor Jahi Issa, who was fired following a student protest against a spate of suspicious hangings of young Blacks. “If these are suicides, then we want the federal Centers for Disease Control to come in and investigate why, all of a sudden, Black men are hanging themselves from oak trees,” said Issa. A protest against lynching is scheduled for January 15, in Dover, Delaware.
Anti-NAACP Demonstration, February 1
Hundreds are expected to picket the NAACP Image Awards ceremonies on February 1, in Los Angeles, according to Rev. Edward Pinkney, a former president of the civil rights organization’s Benton Harbor, Michigan, chapter. “They no longer fight for civil rights, and we’ve got to hold the NAACP accountable for their actions and inactions,” said Pinkney, who charged the organization with selling out to corporate interests. “We give other Black people a free pass, and that’s why we’re in such a compromised position, today.”
NAACP in Democrats’ Pockets, Says Former Chapter President
“We all know for a fact that” the NAACP is “a political machine for the Democratic Party,” said David Lowrey, former president of the group’s Chicago South Suburban chapter. Lowrey is circulating a petition to have the NAACP’s non-profit status revoked for acting as a “political advocacy arm” of the Democratic Party. Except for getting out the Black vote for Democrats, the NAACP has become “a big social club,” said Lowrey. “They rake in millions of dollars from all of these sponsors,” then “look the other way on major issues like racial murders and police brutality.”
The Tracks of Obama’s Tears
President Obama’s tearful performance following the massacre in Newtown, Connecticut, was “theater for the public,” said Dr. Johnny Williams, professor of sociology at Trinity College, in Hartford, Connecticut. “These tears were shed for a particular group of children, not for children overall,” said Williams. “Violence has been going on ever since Obama has been in office, especially in his home city of Chicago where, I’m sure, more than 26 kids have lost their lives during the year. But Obama has shed no tears about that.”
Racist Roots of 2nd Amendment
“Historically, the principal activities of the Founding Fathers’ ‘well-regulated militia’ were Indian killing, land stealing, slave patrolling, and the enforcement of domestic apartheid,” said BAR managing editor Bruce Dixon. The 2nd Amendment institutionalized the massing of “universally armed white men against Blacks and Indians.”
Renters Barely Protected from Foreclosure Evictions
Despite comprising “a majority of households in several of our most populous cities,” renters rely on a single piece of federal legislation to safeguard their rights in the ongoing foreclosure crisis. The Protecting Tenants at Foreclosure Act, which is set to expire in 2014, should be made permanent, said Tristia Bauman, of the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty. Bauman is author of the Center’s recent report, “Eviction (Without) Notice.”
Black Agenda Radio on the Progressive Radio Network is hosted by Glen Ford and Nellie Bailey. A new edition of the program airs every Monday at 11:00am ET on PRN. Length: One hour.
Read against the terrible incineration of Rafah today, this poem of resistance and refusal, by Palestinian poet Samih al-Qasim, is as powerful now as it was fifty years ago.
I spoke to William Sakawa, a producer and reporter with the Nairobi-based media outlet African Stream, about Kenyan President William Ruto’s agreement to invade Haiti for the US.
"Hearing! Hearing! Hearing!" is the latest from BAR's Poet-in-Residence.
This week’s featured authors are Jeanelle K. Hope and Bill V. Mullen. Their book is The Black Antifascist Tradition: Fighting Back From Anti-Lynching to Abolition.
Despite the undeserved loyalty of Black people to the Democratic Party, lawmakers continue to push policy that ignores concerns about climate change and environmental damage in their communities.
