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.
The Pan-African revolutionary thought of Ahmed Sékou Touré and Kwame Nkrumah is an essential guide in seeking liberation for African people.
Laith Marouf and all defenders of Palestinian rights struggle against political and media erasure, Tracy McCarter and other abuse survivors face prosecution when defending themselves, and people with…
Laith Marouf is Policy Consultant with the Community Media Advocacy Centre (CMAC) in Montreal and a long-time defender of Palestine and the rights of Palestinian people. He has been publicly attacked…
Samah Sisay is an attorney and an organizer with the group Survived and Punished, which advocates for the rights of criminalized survivors. She joins us from New York City to discuss the case of…
Across the United States, people with past felony convictions may have severely restricted access to the franchise and in some cases may be denied the right to vote forever. Blair Bowie is senior…
