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 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.
Charisse Burden-Stelly, PhD
Black Politics and Mutual Comradeship: A Manifesto
07 May 2025
From Gaza to Sudan to the streets of America, the oppressors of our time demand mass resistance.
Jon Jeter
Ready For the Revolution But Unable to See It: Blacks Recognize Racism But Lack Game Plan to Fight It
30 April 2025
Black communities once turned righteous fury into systemic change, but today’s outrage over slights like Shedeur Sanders’ NFL draft slide rarel

More Stories


  • Anthony Karefa Rogers-Wright
    The EPA’s Zero Sum Game Surfaces a Dialectical Paradox That Should Be Celebrated, Not Decried
    04 Feb 2026
    The debate over the EPA's new math misses the point. The agency hasn't changed its values, it has simply stopped pretending to account for communities it was never built to protect.
  • Isaac Saney
    Cuba Must Not Fall! Imperialism, Resistance and the Global Stakes of Defending the Cuban Revolution
    04 Feb 2026
    The survival of Cuba's socialist project remains one of the most critical holdouts against hemispheric domination, making its defense a global litmus test for sovereignty.
  • Black Alliance For Peace
    On the Anniversary of the Declaration of a ‘Zone of Peace’, the U.S. Heightens its Murderous Assault on the Cuban People and Revolution
    04 Feb 2026
    Branding Cuba an "extraordinary threat" on the anniversary of a regional peace declaration, the U.S. has escalated an assault designed to destroy hemispheric solidarity and justify hybrid war.
  • Palestinian Alternative Revolutionary Path Movement
    Georges Ibrahim Abdallah: “Together, and only together, do we win.”
    04 Feb 2026
    After 41 years in French captivity, revolutionary militant Georges Ibrahim Abdallah speaks, offering an analysis of October 7th, global fascism, and the Palestinian resistance.
  • Prince Kapone
    Reuters’ ‘Market Story’ and the American Pole: PetroChina, Venezuelan Oil, and the Siege That Calls Itself Trade
    04 Feb 2026
    Reuters sells custodial plunder as a pricing issue, turning blockade into “market caution.” We restore the missing record: seizures, supervision, and the re-routing of Venezuelan oil revenue through…
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us