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


  • Red Alert...
    Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
    Red Alert...
    12 Oct 2022
    Red Alert...
  • BAR Book Forum: Interview with Jon Jon Moore
    Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
    BAR Book Forum: Interview with Jon Jon Moore
    12 Oct 2022
    This week’s featured scholar is Jon Jon Moore. Moore is a writer and host of the AbolitionISH podcast. His article is “Starships and Slave Ships: Black Ontology and the UFO Abduction…
  • Dominican Republic: President Abinader's Anti-Haitianism
    Ana Belique
    Dominican Republic: President Abinader's Anti-Haitianism
    12 Oct 2022
    Luis Abinader, president of the Dominican Republic, continues that country's tradition of enacting anti-Haitian policies.
  • To Solve the Crisis Permanently, Force the US to Stop Backing Notorious White Warlords in Haiti, Part I
    Jafrikayiti
    To Solve the Crisis Permanently, Force the US to Stop Backing Notorious White Warlords in Haiti
    12 Oct 2022
    ​​​​​​​Haiti's oligarchy of light skinned, "white" families are the rulers of the country and act in collusion with the U.S. to maintain their power and prevent the emergence of a sovereign…
  • Black Alliance for Peace Rejects Calls for More Foreign Intervention in Haiti & Stands for Respecting Haitian Sovereignty and Self-Determination
    Black Alliance For Peace
    Black Alliance for Peace Rejects Calls for More Foreign Intervention in Haiti & Stands for Respecting Haitian Sovereignty and Self-Determination
    12 Oct 2022
    The Black Alliance for Peace opposes all foreign intervention in Haiti and calls for the sovereign rights of Haitians to be respected by the international community.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us