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


  • Anthony Karefa Rogers-Wright
    From Proclamation to Provocation: How Marco Rubio Signaled a New Era of Western Colonial Aggression
    04 Mar 2026
    Marco Rubio's Munich speech was a declaration of war wrapped in nostalgia for the old white "supremacist" world order.
  • Black Alliance For Peace
    The Black Alliance for Peace Condemns the U.S.-Israeli War on Iran
    04 Mar 2026
    The U.S. and Israel are rogue states whose existence threatens international peace and security.
  • Orinoco Times staff
    Chavista Grassroots Rebuke Venezuelan Government’s Ambivalent Statement on US-Israeli Aggression Against Iran
    04 Mar 2026
    The difference between the responses to the U.S. and Israeli bombings of Iran by grassroots Chavista organizations and the Venezuelan government demonstrates the importance of people's movements,…
  • Community Movement Builders - Newark
    CMB Newark Statement on the Killing of Wali Bey by Newark Police
    04 Mar 2026
    The media cycle has moved on, but the family of Wali ‘Grillz’ Bey is still waiting for answers after his murder by Newark Police.
  • Stephen Millies
    The War Against Black Workers
    04 Mar 2026
    Black workers built a strong U.S. labor movement. They now endure plant closings, deindustrialization, and low-wage work as a result of neo-liberal policies.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us