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

all their deaths were ruled suicide
JP Sloan
15 Jan 2025
🖨️ Print Article
Memorial site of Emmett Till
Bullet holes riddle the memorial sign of Emmett Till's body was found at the Tallahatchie River. Photo: Emmett Till Memory Project

for Aiyana, for Tommie, for Jordan

all their deaths were ruled suicide

by choosing to live in 71108
by taking a run through 71106
by gorging themselves on government assistance
by jumping into the Atlantic
by refusing to comply
by denying the Gospel of Gender
by boarding the BART to Fruitvale
by inhabiting the food desert
by defending the flag that never defended them
by reading Marx
by preaching “Revolution!”
by protesting peacefully
by speaking in the tongues of the unheard
by playing “cops and robbers”
by sleeping on the couch
by resting in “peace” in a Haynesville cemetery
by drinking the bitter, flinty waters of austerity
by driving too fast through a “Church Zone”
by dreaming drunk in the drive-thru
by practicing self-defense in a “Stand Your Ground” state
by praying without ceasing in a Charleston church
by turning up the music too loud
by whistling...allegedly
by “excited delirium syndrome”
by selling loose cigarettes and cds
by standing at the door and knocking
by “the combined effects of sickl…”
by

JP Sloan is a Louisiana native and a scholar of early Black poetry. He is also an aspiring poet and an organizer with the Black Alliance for Peace.

state violence
Anti-Black Racism
Assassination
Lynching
Emmett Till
Jordan Neely
Black Radical Tradition

Do you need and appreciate Black Agenda Report articles? Please click on the DONATE icon, and help us out, if you can.


Related Stories

Anthony Karefa Rogers-Wright
The Path Black to Socialism: Dispatches from the 2026 Socialism Conference
09 September 2026
Many in the U.S. "Left" are actually liberal elements that pull socialism toward the Democratic Party.
Michael Steven Smith
Meet the Radical Legal Collective That Won Justice for Fred Hampton and Continues Fighting to This Day
09 September 2026
Longtime attorney Flint Taylor’s new book tells the story of the People’s Law Collective, which grew out of the radical movements of the late 1
Anthony Rogers-Wright
Israel Just Passed a Law Sanctioning the Lynching of Palestinians…So Why is the Congressional Black Caucus So Silent About it?
15 April 2026
The same caucus that celebrated the Emmett Till Antilynching Act refuses to condemn Israel's new death penalty for Palestinians.
Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
The Urgent Need for the Black Radical Tradition
11 March 2026
The U.S.
Anthony Rogers-Wright
Preserving the Legacy of Martin Luther King and The Black Radical Tradition Requires Saving Both from the Congressional Black Caucus More than from white moderates and white supremacists (Or, I said what I said)
21 January 2026
Preserving the Black Radical Tradition demands struggle not only against white supremacists, but also against the co-opted Black political clas
Michael Smith
Malcolm X’s Daughters Sue NYPD, FBI About Their Role in His Assassination
14 January 2026
A top-notch legal team is delving into how the FBI and their local police partners collaborated in both the assassination of Malcolm X and Chic
Erica Caines
“Crime”, The Trojan Horse For Colonial Control
24 September 2025
The rhetoric of crime prevention has always served to enforce colonial order.
Ryan Mills
OPINION: The National Black Radical Organizing Conference: Carrying on Tradition
17 September 2025
Organizer Ryan Mills shares his firsthand experience as one of the organizers of the 2025 National Black Radical Organizing Conference in India
Black Alliance For Peace
From George Floyd Back to the Structural Violence of Capitalism
28 May 2025
With the ritualistic murder of George Floyd by the occupation forces referred to as the police that roam the streets and barrios of the Black a
Jon Jeter
The Only Language the White Settler Speaks: Ohio Police Say Grieving Black Father Avenges Son’s Slaying By Killing One of Theirs
07 May 2025
The killing of Timothy Thomas in 2001 ignited Cincinnati’s long-simmering tensions over police violence.

More Stories


  • Editors, The Black Agenda Review
    LETTER: “We See Preparations for a Direct Military Intervention by the United States and Its Allies,” Fidel Castro, 1990
    30 Sep 2026
    “I believe that the Movement of Nonaligned Countries…can buttress the united will of the Arab nation and help it to prevail against intervention and aggression.”
  • Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
    Don’t Believe the Hype: Revolutionary Eritrea Sustains Sovereignty Over Its Red Sea Coast
    30 Sep 2026
    There is no evidence that Eritrea has surrendered its Red Sea Coast in exchange for relief from US sanctions.
  • Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
    U.S. Liberal Media Literacy Guide: “This Isn’t Who We Are”
    30 Sep 2026
    The liberal news media treat U.S. violence and oppression as aberrations from the country's founding ideals rather than expressions of its fundamental character as a settler colony, empire,…
  • Mark P. Fancher
    Is It Bad News That U.S. Drones Will Be Pulled Out of Africa?
    30 Sep 2026
    The U.S. relocation of MQ-9 Reaper drones from Africa to Latin America is not a drawdown of imperial aggression but a strategic reallocation, with the drones likely to be used against Cuba, Venezuela…
  • Denise Powell
    A Southern Reckoning with the Medical Myth of Race as a Diagnostic Tool
    30 Sep 2026
    Race is a sociopolitical construct, not a biological truth. The real determinants of health are structural factors such as zip code, environmental pollution, and access to resources.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us