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


  • Cuba: From AIDS, Dengue, and Ebola to COVID-19
    Don Fitz
    Cuba: From AIDS, Dengue, and Ebola to COVID-19
    22 Apr 2020
    Before Cuba experienced its first COVID-!9 case it had already updated a plan to prevent and control the disease.
  • Mike Davis On Pandemics, Super-capitalism and the Struggles of Tomorrow
    Sharif Abdel Kouddous
    Mike Davis On Pandemics, Super-capitalism and the Struggles of Tomorrow
    22 Apr 2020
    Capitalist globalization means accepting a permanent triage of humanity and dooming part of the human race to eventual extinction. 
  • Black Agenda Radio for Week of April 20, 2020
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
    Black Agenda Radio for Week of April 20, 2020
    20 Apr 2020
    Covid-19 and the Black Working Class
  • "Decolonizing" Science in Multi-Language Africa
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
    "Decolonizing" Science in Multi-Language Africa
    20 Apr 2020
    South African communicator and journalist Sibusiso Biyela wrote an article on “decolonizing” science so that it is accessible to the country’s many indigenous language gr
  • Public Housing Neglect Creates Lethal Trap
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
    Public Housing Neglect Creates Lethal Trap
    20 Apr 2020
    “You have these areas that are not clean and, on top of that, you have folks that don’t have access to health care because of racism and capitalism,” said Philip McHarris, a Y
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us