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

Solitary Confinement As a Tool of Political Oppression
Black Agenda Radio with Nellie Bailey and Glen Ford
06 Nov 2018
🖨️ Print Article

Since at least the 1950s, prison officials have used solitary confinement as a political tool against Black inmates, said Brittany Friedman, a professor of sociology at Rutgers University and co-author of an essay titled “Solitary Confinement and the Nation of Islam.” “When it comes to forms of extreme punishment behind bars,” said Friedman, “African Americans have long been the subject of these tools of discipline.”

Black Mass Incarceration

Related Podcasts

Black Agenda Radio July 7, 2023
Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
Black Agenda Radio July 7, 2023
07 July 2023
In this week’s segment we hear about CIA medical experiments performed on indigenous children in Canada and Black prisoners in the U.S.
New Documents Link CIA to Medical Torture of Indigenous Children and Black Prisoners
Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
New Documents Link CIA to Medical Torture of Indigenous Children and Black Prisoners
07 July 2023
Orisanmi Burton is an assistant professor at American University’s Department of Anthropology.
Black Agenda Radio March 31, 2023
Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
Black Agenda Radio March 31, 2023
31 March 2023
In this segment, we will hear the second part of our discussion on racist and punitive immigration policies that are consistent from one presidenti

More Stories


  • ​​​​​​​ Ajamu Baraka, BAR editor and columnist
    From Capitalist Crisis to Crisis of Whiteness: Rubio, Western Decline, and the Defense of White Supremacy
    14 Oct 2026
    Marco Rubio's appeals to Western civilization, Christian heritage, and the defense of Western dominance are fundamental to the consolidating global fascist project, functioning to transform a crisis…
  • Editors, The Black Agenda Review
    INTERVIEW: Elections and economic crisis in Guyana: Interview with Working People's Alliance leader Eusi Kwayana, 1986
    14 Oct 2026
    “So we started to preach the doctrine of self-organization. And we made it very clear what we were after — the genuine multiracial and democratic power of the working people.”
  • Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
    Trump Terrorizes Ilhan Omar and Somali Americans in Minnesota
    14 Oct 2026
    Trump is terrorizing Minnesota’s Somali Americans in a desperate xenophobic and racist appeal to voters in the state’s white farming and mining communities.
  • Anthony Karefa Rogers-Wright
    The r(AI)cial Divide of Big Tech and Data Center Buildout
    14 Oct 2026
    Artificial intelligence and hyperscale data center buildout constitute a new front of environmental racism and a project to optimize white supremacy, with Black communities targeted as sacrifice…
  • Kribsoo Diallo
    The Congo as a Site of Capital Accumulation: Erik Prince and the Privatization of War
    14 Oct 2026
    Erik Prince's mercenary operations in the Democratic Republic of the Congo serve U.S. imperial and corporate interests in critical minerals and violate the Congolese peoples' sovereignty.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us