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


  • Lloyd Austin
    Orinoco Tribune
    Venezuela’s Vice President: We Must Reject US Militarization in Latin America, CIA Bases in Guyana
    08 May 2024
    United States imperialism in Latin America via SOUTHCOM is threatening the development of a true Zone of Peace in the region.
  • Black Agenda Radio
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Black Agenda Radio May 3, 2024
    03 May 2024
    This week we discuss a police killing in Chicago and community control of police, and a Black member of a Canadian provincial parliament who was censured for her solidarity with Palestine. First, the…
  • Leah Goodridge
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    New York Rent Protections Under Attack by Landlords and the Supreme Court
    03 May 2024
    Leah Goodridge joins us from New York to discuss the latest effort by landlords to do away with New York City's rent protections.
  • NAARPR
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Police Killings Continue in Chicago
    03 May 2024
    Frank Chapman joins us from Chicago to discuss the recent police killing of Dexter Reed.
  • Sarah Jama in Parliament
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Black Canadian Politician Under Attack for Palestine Solidarity
    03 May 2024
    El Jones joins us to discuss the case of Sarah Jama, a member of Ontario’s provincial parliament, who has been banned from wearing a keffiyeh while in that legislature and censured for expressing…
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us