“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

More Stories

Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
Beware the Movement’s “Controlled Opposition”
12 Oct 2020
Shannon Jones, of Bronxites for NYPD Accountability, who was among 250 people arrested at a massive police assault on protesters, June 4, warns that some corporate foundation-funde
Glen Ford, BAR Executive Editor
Bidens and Trumps, Foxes and Wolves
08 Oct 2020
The fox and wolf parties – both corporate canines – debate how best to acclimate the masses to their deepening state of precarity.
Margaret Kimberley, BAR senior columnist
Freedom Rider: Liberal Sympathy for Trump
07 Oct 2020
If Ava Duvernay really believes Trump is a white supremacist, why wish him well?
Danny Haiphong, BAR Contributing Editor
Debate Lesson: 2020 Election is a Great Corporate Thug-a-thon
07 Oct 2020
Trump and Biden avoided policy because neither had anything to offer the masses of people.
Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
Fight the Power: Resistance Radio at the Virtual GRC Summit
07 Oct 2020
The Grassroots Radio Virtual Summit is for anyone looking for ways to resist heightening repression and anyone who feels that grassroots radio is vital to their community, writes Ann Garrison.

Related Podcasts

More Stories