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


  • The Left in New York Join the Green Transformation
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    The Left in New York Join the Green Transformation
    17 Mar 2023
    We discuss the March 25th meeting, Join the Green Transformation, a Green Party of New York County effort to mobilize left voters.
  • Proposed Changes to Census Questions on Race and Ethnicity Would Improve Fairness and Accuracy
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Proposed Changes to Census Questions on Race and Ethnicity Would Improve Fairness and Accuracy
    17 Mar 2023
    Proposed changes to 2030 Census questions on race and ethnicity would improve fairness and accuracy.
  • Farewell, Senior Brother: In Memory of Kevin Alexander Gray
    Jemima Pierre, BAR Editor and Contributor
    Farewell, Senior Brother: In Memory of Kevin Alexander Gray
    15 Mar 2023
    Kevin Alexander Gray was a contributor and good friend to the Black Agenda Report team. His passing is a huge loss to BAR, and to the Black liberation movement. 
  • China, Covid Origins, and War Propaganda
    Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
    China, Covid Origins, and War Propaganda
    15 Mar 2023
    A human cause of covid-19 is possible, but anti-China rhetoric is war propaganda, not scientific evidence.
  • INTERVIEW: A Talk with Sylvia Woods, 1974
    Editors, The Black Agenda Review
    INTERVIEW: A Talk with Sylvia Woods, 1974
    15 Mar 2023
    An inspiring interview with Sylvia Woods highlights the role of Black women in labor organizing and demonstrates that Black women should always be at the forefront.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us