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


  • Why Defending Nicaragua is Important
    Stephen Sefton
    Why Defending Nicaragua is Important
    26 Oct 2021
    The U.S. effort to destabilize Nicaragua is an ongoing crime against that nation's people. Anti-imperialists must defend their right to self-determination.
  • The Killing of Gaddafi 10 Years ago has Resulted in the Death of the Nation of Libya and the Destruction of its People
    Richard Medhurst
    The Killing of Gaddafi 10 Years ago has Resulted in the Death of the Nation of Libya and the Destruction of its People
    26 Oct 2021
    Ten years ago Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton led the US/NATO war crime that destroyed the Libyan state and murdered its leader.
  • Photo: Twitter / @devilette
    Monica Cruz
    Puerto Ricans Resist Austerity Measures and Corporate Corruption
    26 Oct 2021
    Five years after PROMESA was signed into law which established the control of the Fiscal Control Board over the island’s economy, conditions in Puerto Rico are worse than ever before.
  • Planting Budgetary Time Bombs in Africa: the Macron Doctrine En Marche
    Daniela Gabor, Ndongo Samba Sylla
    Planting Budgetary Time Bombs in Africa: the Macron Doctrine En Marche
    26 Oct 2021
    French president Emmanuel Macron ensnares African nations in risky privatization schemes, a continuation of the colonial relationship.
  • The Many Crimes of Colin Powell
    Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
    The Many Crimes of Colin Powell
    20 Oct 2021
    Colin Powell's death is an opportunity to question the inclination to respect the Black face in a high place. Powell's career includes a litany of crimes that must never be excused.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us