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
  • omnibus

Listen to Black Agenda Radio on the Progressive Radio Network, with Glen Ford and Nellie Bailey – Week of 2/24/14
25 Feb 2014

Michael Dunn Case More Clear Cut Than Zimmerman

Opio Sokoni, head of the Jacksonville, Florida, NAACP, said Michael Dunn’s guilt in the killing of Jordan Davis was even more obvious than that of George Zimmerman in Trayvon Martin’s death. “Only the most rabid racists were actually standing behind Dunn, saying that this guy was innocent,” said Sokoni. “Then we realized there were some of those people on the jury.” Dunn was convicted of attempted murder, but the jury deadlocked on first degree murder charges.

Russell “Maroon” Shoatz Wins 22-Year Battle

“We were ecstatic that the efforts of so many bore great fruit,” said Ayanna Rauf, fiancé of former Black Panther Russell “Maroon” Shoatz, who was released into the general Pennsylvania prison population after 22 years of solitary confinement. Seventy year-old Shoatz, who is now blind in one eye, told Ms. Rauf: “I have to practice walking again without shackles and chains.” Rauf said she and Shoatz are “looking forward to our marriage, in June,” and hope to win commutation of his sentence by the governor.

Molefi Asante Complicit in Anthony Monteiro Firing

Dr. Wilmer Leon III, host of Sirius XM Radio’s “Inside the Issue” program and an academic ally of Temple University’s embattled African American Studies professor Anthony Monteiro, is “incredibly impressed with the level of support” Monteiro is receiving from the community. Dr. Monteiro was effectively fired by Dean of Liberal Arts Teresa Soufas with the complicity of African American Studies department chair Molefi Asante. “It appears as though, after Dr. Asante became somewhat secure in his position, he became an instrument of Dean Soufas,” said Dr. Leon.

Ras Baraka in Lead for Newark Mayor

Amina Baraka, widow of poet-activist Amiri Baraka and mother of Newark, New Jersey mayoral candidate Ras Baraka, said her son “is on the side of those who are oppressed and cannot find a way out of the system.” A city councilman and high school principal, Ras Baraka is generally considered the frontrunner. Former mayor Cory Booker, now a U.S. senator, “was not interested in the neighborhoods,” said Amina Baraka, while her son wants to make the Port of Newark and the international airport “pay their fair share of taxes.”

Wanted: A Populist Trade Policy

With most Democrats opposed to giving President Obama “fast-track” powers to ram through his Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade treaty, it’s time to come up with a “populist trade program that puts people and the planet first, and that can be openly discussed in a transparent way,” said Kevin Zeese, co-director of It’s Our Economy. The Obama administration has shrouded TPP talks in secrecy.

CARICOM Discriminates Against Haitians

Ezili Danto, director of the Haitian Lawyers Leadership Network, said the Caribbean economic community, CARICOM, “treats Haitians pretty much the same way that Europeans do.” Haiti is the only CARICOM member whose citizens are required to hold a visa to visit other CARICOM countries. Ms. Danto was interviewed by Dedon Sankara on Uhuru Radio.

Venezuelan Protesters are Frustrated Minority

The opposition is disrupting life in Venezuela because it keeps losing elections and continues to receive millions of dollars in funding from the United States, said Samuel Moncada, the country’s ambassador to the United Nations. “We have had 18 elections in 15 years, but we are still a dictatorship” according to the U.S. government and corporate media, said Moncada, at a New York event honoring the late President Hugo Chavez.

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


  • Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
    The Necessity of Birthright Citizenship for Black People
    02 Jul 2025
    Black citizenship was non-existent for the first 200 years that enslaved and free people were present in what became the United States. Even long-standing legal victories are tenuous, and now…
  • Editors, The Black Agenda Review
    ESSAY: Black Refugees Unwelcomed! Gaou Guinou Balewa, 1973
    02 Jul 2025
    “Haitian refugees and political exiles find themselves being refused the hospitality granted others.”
  • Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
    Aggressors Unnamed in Rwanda-DRC “Peace Agreement”
    02 Jul 2025
    Rwandan and M23 forces are the aggressors in the DRC. They are integrated under Rwandan command.
  • Jon Jeter
    Mamdani’s Train is Running But Blacks Wonder if There is Space for Them
    02 Jul 2025
    Zohran Mamdani’s democratic socialist vision won NYC’s primary but lost Black voters to scandal-plagued Cuomo by 20 points, exposing the left’s racial blind spot even as Wall Street prepares to spend…
  • Maurice Carney
    Donald Trump’s Congo Venture: A Scramble for Minerals Under the Guise of Peace
    02 Jul 2025
    Trump’s ‘peace deal’ between Rwanda and the DRC is a corporate resource grab disguised as diplomacy, rewarding Rwandan war crimes while U.S. investors stake claims to Congo’s coltan mines.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us