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


  •  US Genocide Against Blacks, Now and in 1951
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
    US Genocide Against Blacks, Now and in 1951
    19 Jan 2021
    The Black leftists that presented a petition to the United Nations, 70 years ago, charging the US with genocide against Black Americans, understood that “there is a linked fate between what’s happe
  •  US Imperialism Was in Disarray in 2020
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
    US Imperialism Was in Disarray in 2020
    18 Jan 2021
    Black Alliance for Peace national organizer Ajamu Baraka told a year-end conference of the Black Is Back Coalition that “the US settler state is facing the most serious crisis of l
  • White Settler Uprising at the Capitol
    Glen Ford, BAR Executive Editor
    White Settler Uprising at the Capitol
    14 Jan 2021
    Last week’s assault on the Capitol was essentially a race riot, the product of white racial grievance.
  • Max Blumenthal: Breach of Capitol Security Was Like a Military Operation
    Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
    Max Blumenthal: Breach of Capitol Security Was Like a Military Operation
    13 Jan 2021
    The Grayzone founder notes that “such a disproportionate percentage” of the Capitol building attackers were former military, former law enforcement, or current law enforcement that began rappelling
  • Freedom Rider: Capitol Riot Brings U.S. Foreign Policy Home
    Margaret Kimberley, BAR senior columnist
    Freedom Rider: Capitol Riot Brings U.S. Foreign Policy Home
    13 Jan 2021
    There needs to be soul searching and truth telling about invasions, interventions, coups and sanctions that are far more destructive than the Trump lovers could ever be.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us