http://blackagendaradio.podbean.com/mf/web/e6rcva/BAR030215.mp3
Eight hundred people attended the funeral for Jessica Hernandez, an unarmed transgender 17 year-old shot down by Denver police. The problem isn’t just a few “bad apple” cops. “The whole damn rotten system is the problem, and must be thrown out,” said Kerry “Shakaboona” Marshall, a correspondent for Prison Radio and editor of The Movement magazine, who has served 25 years of a life sentence imposed when he was still a juvenile, in Pennsylvania.
“The Dark Side of American Exceptionalism”
That’s the title of a commentary by Kenneth E. Hartman, executive director of The Other Death Penalty Project, who is serving life without possibility of parole in a California prison. Hartman believes that most Americans are willing to make prisons more humane. “It really is past time for all of us trying to fix this mess to stop kowtowing and start standing up to power,” said Hartman.
Chicago Torture Cop Freed from Custody
Jon Burge, the former Chicago police commander who oversaw the torture of hundreds of mainly Black “suspects” in the Seventies and Eighties, was released from a halfway house after serving 4 ½ years for lying under oath. Some of Burge’s victims were later proven innocent, including Shadeed Mu’min, who was convicted of murder based on a false confession. After being nearly choked to death three times, Mu’min said to Burge, “I’ll tell you anything you wanna know, just don’t do this no more.” The audio was provided by Democracy Now!
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. Click here to download the show.
Navid Zarrinnal is an Iranian journalist and host of The Colony Archive podcast. He joins us from Tehran to discuss the US and Israeli aggression and explains why the left must be in solidarity with…
The United States attack on the Islamic Republic of Iran began on February 28. Our guest provides analysis on this U.S. aggression from an anti-imperialist and Black left perspective. Erica Caines is…
The U.S. is careening towards economic and military disaster, a moment when the Black radical tradition is missing but badly needed.
“We salute all peoples who are fighting/We honor all those who have died/For the cause of freedom.”
This lecture was delivered on February 3, 2026, at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver (Canada) for the monthly series “Black History and the Project of Black Studies.”
