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

Listen to Black Agenda Radio on the Progressive Radio Network, with Glen Ford and Nellie Bailey – Week of December 23, 2012
27 Dec 2012
🖨️ Print Article

 

Bill to Head Off U.S. War Against Syria

“It has actually reached the point that presidents don’t give a darn about the Congress,” said Harlem Democrat Charles Rangel, one of six congressional signatories to a letter urging President Obama to ask Congress’s authorization before waging war on Syria. Rangel appeared at a Capitol Hill press conference held by North Carolina Republican Rep. Walter Jones, author of legislation calling for impeachment for unauthorized presidential war-making. Patrick Lang, a former head of Defense Intelligence Agency operations in the Middle East and North Africa, said “the government of the United States has embarked on a course which, if followed, will lead to military intervention in Syria.”

American Revolution was a Racist Revolt

Dr. Gerald Horne, professor of History and African American Studies at the University of Houston, said, the American revolt of 1776 against British rule “was basically a successful revolt of racist settlers. It was akin to Rhodesia, in 1965, assuming that Ian Smith and his cabal had triumphed. It was akin to the revolt of the French settlers in Algeria, in the 1950s and 1960s, assuming those French settlers had triumphed.” Dr. Horne explores the racist roots on the American Revolution in his new book, Negroes of the Crown. “It was very difficult to construct a progressive republic in North America after what was basically a racist revolt,” said Horne. “The revolt was motivated in no small part by the fact that abolitionism was growing in London…. This is one of the many reasons more Africans by an order of magnitude fought against the rebels in 1776, than fought alongside them.”

Black Soldiers Crucial to American War of Independence

Black soldiers “were the most experienced fighters” at Yorktown, comprising a quarter of the soldiers under General George Washington’s command in the decisive battle, said Alan Gilbert, author of Black Patriots and Loyalists: Fighting for Emancipation in the War for Independence. Gilbert disputes estimates that only 5,000 Blacks fought for American separation from Britain. However, far more Blacks served with the British, who promised freedom, while Washington’s Continental Army did not.

 

Black Agenda Radio on the Progressive Radio Network is hosted by Glen Ford and Nellie Bailey. A new edition of the program airs every Monday at 11:00am ET on PRN. Length: One hour.


More Stories


  •  BAR Book Forum: Shanté Paradigm Smalls’s “Hip Hop Heresies”
    Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
    BAR Book Forum: Shanté Paradigm Smalls’s “Hip Hop Heresies”
    22 Jun 2022
    This week’s featured author is Shanté Paradigm Smalls. Smalls is Associate Professor of Black Studies in the Department of English and Faculty in Critical Race & Ethnic Studies at St. John’s…
  • Celebrations in Colombia’s Streets: Gustavo Petro to Be First Left-Wing President and Francia Márquez the First Afro-Descendant Woman VP
    Julie Varughese
    Celebrations in Colombia’s Streets: Gustavo Petro to Be First Left-Wing President and Francia Márquez the First Afro-Descendant Woman VP
    22 Jun 2022
    The Historical Pact candidates Gustavo Petro and Francia Marquez were elected President and Vice President of Colombia. Their victory is the first for leftists in that country but part of a trend in…
  • Poor Peoples’ March
    Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
    Poor Peoples’ March
    22 Jun 2022
                                                         
  • Summit of the Americas Flops While Workers Summit of the Americas Exposes Cracks in the Imperial Façade
    Roger D. Harris
    Summit of the Americas Flops While Workers Summit Exposes Cracks in the Imperial Façade
    22 Jun 2022
    The U.S. effort to exert control at Summit of the Americas failed spectacularly. The Workers Summit of the Americas in Tijuana, Mexico showed the strength of people's movements around the world.
  • Warriors we are…
    Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
    Warriors we are…
    22 Jun 2022
                                                           …
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us