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

“Respectable” Black Women Fought Mass Incarceration
Black Agenda Radio with Nellie Bailey and Glen Ford
02 Mar 2020
🖨️ Print Article

Back in the days when 90 percent of southern prison inmates were Black, socially conservative Black clubwomen fought for prison reform, believing that “putting Black women in jail was hurting the Black community,” said Nikki Brown, professor of history at the University of New Orleans. The National Association of Colored Women, who practiced what we today call “respectability” politics, played a key role in creating alternatives to incarceration, said Brown, who authored an article titled, “Keeping Black Motherhood Out of Prison: Prison Reform and Woman-Saving in the Progressive Era.”

Mass Black Incarceration

Related Podcasts

Involuntary Servitude in the Prison System
Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
Involuntary Servitude in the Prison System
24 June 2022
Savannah Eldrige is the founder of Coaliton to Abolish Slave
White Capitalist Law vs “Uncontrollable Blackness”
Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
White Capitalist Law vs “Uncontrollable Blackness”
01 September 2020
The United States “criminalizes Black Americans,” but Black men “are not looking to be controlled” by this racist system, said Douglas
 Getting Out the Word: #PrisonsKill
Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
Getting Out the Word: #PrisonsKill
25 August 2020
The Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee, IWOC, “is committed to the militant organizing of prisoners that takes its leadership and focus from

More Stories


  • Essam Elkorghli
    NATO’s 77th Summit in Ankara, Türkiye: A Meeting of Warmongering and Endless Acronyms
    22 Jul 2026
    The engraved revolvers Erdogan handed out in Ankara showed that NATO has stopped pretending to be a defensive alliance and embraced its new role as the West's premier weapons trade fair.
  • Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez
    Cuba's President Responds to Marco Rubio's War Propaganda
    22 Jul 2026
    Cuba's president, Miguel Diaz-Canel Bermudez, posted this statement in response to the State Department report on his X/Twitter account.
  • Ruben Bauer Naveira
    The Global Food Crisis
    22 Jul 2026
    Faced with the blockade of vital oil routes, the extreme dependence of modern agriculture on fossil fuels foreshadows not only high prices but also a food shortage capable of generating global social…
  • Carlos Aznárez
    Zionist Expansionism in Latin America
    22 Jul 2026
    Free trade deals, water contracts, and military training programs are quietly binding one Latin American government after another to Tel Aviv.
  • Devin B. Martinez
    ICE Killings Fuel Nationwide Protests
    22 Jul 2026
    Recent killings at the hands of federal agents have fueled protests across the US, including a nationwide day of action on July 18.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us