Black Agenda Radio for Week of October 23, 2017
Philadelphia to Celebrate Dubois Birthday
Next year marks the 150th birthday of the great Black scholar-activist W.E.B. Dubois. To celebrate the occasion, the Philadelphia Saturday Free School will mount a year-long literacy and democracy campaign” titled “Philadelphia Reads W.E.B. Dubois.” Duboisian scholar Dr. Anthony Monteiro said the campaign will explore “the totality of Dubois’ work,” with the aim of enhancing “the ability of Black working class and poor people to fight for our rights and for peace and justice.”
DA Wants Sugar Bear’s Blood
Courts threw out Robert “Sugar Bear” Lark’s conviction in a 1979 murder because Blacks had been systematically kept off Philadelphia juries. The city’s District Attorney is now demanding that a new jury put the 63 year-old Lark to death. Although Lark is “not a political prisoner in the traditional sense of the word,” said longtime Mumia Abu Jamal supporter Dr. Johanna Fernandez, Lark seems to have been “targeted because of his outspokenness against political corruption and police misconduct in Philadelphia.”
FBI Tries to Shield Violent White Supremacists
Activists in cites nationwide marked National Stop Police Brutality Day, this past weekend, including Newark, New Jersey’s People’s Organization for Progress (POP). POP chairman Larry Hamm noted that the FBI come up with a new designation for Black political activists.” We’ve had a rise in activities among white supremacist and racist hate groups,” said Hamm. “What the FBI is trying to do is take the spotlight off these groups and put it on groups they call ‘Black Identity Extremists,’ which are actually fighting to protect the interests of the Black community.”
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:am ET on PRN. Length: one hour.
Opposing the latest call for the invasion of Haiti, ending legacy admissions in New York, felony murder sentencing in Pennsylvania.
Dr. Jemima Pierre is a professor in the African American Studies and Anthropology Departments at UCLA.
Johanna Miller is Director of Education Policy at the New York Civil Liberties Union.
Quinn Cozzens is a staff attorney with Abolitionist Law Center who joins us to discuss the issue of sentencing for felony murder in Pennsylvania.
The earth recently experienced its hottest days on record. Here in the U.S. Black people face the worst consequences of the climate crisis.
