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


  •  Black Agenda Radio for Week of May 17, 2021
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
    Black Agenda Radio for Week of May 17, 2021
    18 May 2021
    Israel Deliberately Provoked Violence
  •  Military Industrial Complex Poisons Black Town
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
    Military Industrial Complex Poisons Black Town
    18 May 2021
    Water and land in the small Black town of Tallevast, Florida, was for two generations contaminated by beryllium refined for Lockheed Martin, NASA and other big players in the US war and space busin
  •  US Fakes ISIS Threat in Congo to Justify AFRICOM Presence
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
    US Fakes ISIS Threat in Congo to Justify AFRICOM Presence
    18 May 2021
    The US continues to insist that ISIS is to blame for recent violence in the Congo, where six million people have died since 1996, despite the fact that hardly any Muslims reside in the mineral-rich
  •  October Tribunal to Probe US Crimes Against Humanity
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
    October Tribunal to Probe US Crimes Against Humanity
    18 May 2021
    “We’re going to present expert witnesses to flush out” centuries of genocide and other US crimes before an International Tribunal on US Human Rights Abuses, said Jihad Abdulmumit,
  •  Israel Deliberately Provoked Violence
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
    Israel Deliberately Provoked Violence
    18 May 2021
    The bloodshed that has taken more than 200 Palestinian lives is the result of “a planned provocation to feed the ultra-right” in Israel, said Sara Flounders,  of the Internati
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us