Chicago to Host Black Is Back Coalition
The Black Is Back Coalition for Social Justice, Peace and Reparations holds its national conference in Chicago, August 12 and 13, under the theme, “The Ballot and the Bullet: Elections, War and Peace in the Donald Trump Era.” Kamm Howard, of the Black Is Back steering committee, is active in NCOBRA, the National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America. “One of the ways we’re pushing reparations is a Black Is Back-led push to have a reparations referendum put on the Chicago ballot in March of 2018,” said Howard.
Seeking Reparations by Dropping Slave Claims
In 2006, a federal court ruled that the descendants of Black slaves in the U.S. have no “standing” to sue for reparations. However, Dr. Jahi Issa and Reggie Mabry say they have devised a new legal strategy to overcome the courts’ objections. “Slavery in the United States was immoral, but it was legal,” said Mabry. What was not legal, however, was the importation of Africans as forced labor after the outlawing of the international slave trade in 1808. Issa and Mabry claim “the bulk” of U.S. Blacks are descended from these post-1808 victims of “human trafficking” -- as distinct from slavery -- and can make a successful case for redress in court.
Missouri Prisoners Push Suit for Hep C Treatment
Citing Mumia Abu Jamal’s successful legal battle against Pennsylvania prison officials, a court has granted Missouri prisoners the right to pursue a class action suit to force the state to treat them for Hepatitis C. In an essay for Prison Radio, Abu Jamal noted that Pennsylvania continues, in practice, to delay treatment for Hep C until prisoners “are at death’s door.” However, the legal precedents have been set, and “we are winning,” he said.
Precious Minerals + Rogue President = Mass Death in Congo
Two million people have been displaced from their homes by violence in the Kasai province of the Democratic Republic of Congo, where 80 mass graves have recently been discovered. Not coincidentally, huge deposits of coltan and other precious minerals have been found in the region, said Kambale Musavuli, of Friends of Congo. The killings are widely blamed on soldiers of President Joseph Kabila, who refuses to step down despite having used up his two terms in office. “This is the same area where King Leopold II of Belgium caused the death of millions of Congolese, a hundred years ago,” said Musavuli.
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.
The U.S. imposes unilateral coercive measures, sanctions, against millions of people around the world. Sanctions are war by other means, creating as much damage as bombs and bullets do.
Black people are disproportionately convicted of felonies across New York State. In Manhattan, a Black person is 21 times more likely to be convicted of a crime than a white person.
Thank you for your support in 2022. Black Agenda Report Will Return on January 4, 2023.
The effort to save an African cemetery from destruction and desecration, witnessing Cuba and the Black liberation connection, and the impact of a Supreme Court decision in Moore v. Harper.
Dr. Marsha Coleman-Adebayo is a longtime contributor to Black Agenda Report and the author of No Fear: A Whistelebower’s Triumph Over Corruption and Retaliation at the EPA. She is also the founder of…
