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

Black Elites, and Many Black Voters, Supported Mass Black Incarceration
25 Jul 2017
🖨️ Print Article

Historian, author and activist Paul Street has high praise for James Forman Jr.’s new book, Locking Up Our Own: Crime and Punishment in Black America. Forman is a professor at Yale Law School and a former public defender in Washington, DC. His book “fills a giant hole in the literature,” illuminating the role played by “Black elites in the rise of the mass incarceration system,” said Street, himself an expert on race and the U.S. penal system. “Many ordinary, working class Black voters in the 70s and 80s have actively supported the racially disparate war on crime and drugs that ended up producing racist mass incarceration,” said Street, whose latest book is titled They Rule: The 1% v. Democracy.


More Stories


  • Chris Gilbert , Cira Pascual Marquina
    Culture and Resistance: The Palmarito Afro-Descendant Commune (Part II)
    15 Oct 2025
    Afro-Venezuelan communards on the southern shore region of Lake Maracaibo discuss the intersection of culture and organization.
  • Mohammad al-Ayoubi
    No Rule Without Resistance: Gaza’s Post-War Future and the Collapse of Foreign Illusions
    15 Oct 2025
    As western powers push technocracy over sovereignty, Palestinian resistance movements warn that there can be no reconstruction without liberation.
  • David Kenner
    Arab States Deepened Military Ties with Israel While Denouncing Gaza War, Leak Reveals
    15 Oct 2025
    Israeli and Arab military officials have come together for meetings and trainings, facilitated by U.S. Central Command, on regional threats, Iran and underground tunnels.
  • Roger D. Harris
    Will the US Attack Venezuela?
    15 Oct 2025
    Solidarity activist and analyst Roger Harris takes stock of the rapidly escalating US military threats against Venezuela.
  • BAR Radio Logo
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Black Agenda Radio October 10, 2025
    10 Oct 2025
    In this week’s segment, we hear about a graphic novel that presents the history of Black armed resistance in the U.S. But first, we discuss the city of Chicago and how activists and communities are…
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us