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


  • Haitian mom and child on a bus
    Socialist Movement of the Workers of the Dominican Republic
    Dominican Republic Continues to Illegally Separate Haitian Children from Their Families
    31 Jan 2024
    The Dominican Republic continues the disturbing pattern of mass expulsions and arbitrary detentions of Haitian and Haitian descended Dominicans, including the illegal separation of infants and…
  • Representatives of Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger
    Peoples Dispatch
    Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger withdraw from ECOWAS
    31 Jan 2024
    ECOWAS has long been condemned by West Africa’s popular movements as an agent of French imperialism. With the withdrawal of the three nations, it may usher in a new era for the region.
  • Proceedings of the ICJ
    Black Alliance For Peace
    International Coalition to Stop Genocide in Palestine Welcomes Today’s ICJ Order; Demands its Implementation
    31 Jan 2024
    The Black Alliance for Peace is a leading member of a coalition formed to support the charge of genocide against Israel at the International Court of Justice.
  • A man sets up a tent in front of police
    Adam Mahoney
    An Upcoming Supreme Court Case Threatens to Criminalize Homelessness
    31 Jan 2024
    The Supreme Court will soon decide if unhoused people can be issued jail time or fines for sleeping on the streets. Black people experiencing homelessness would be disproportionately impacted. 
  • Black Agenda Radio
    Black Agenda Radio
    Black Agenda Radio January 26, 2024
    26 Jan 2024
    In this week’s segment we discuss Kenyans protesting their government’s participation in an impending occupation of Haiti, and why Flint, Michigan still has contaminated water and no justice for its…
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us