| Black Agenda Report

Frederick Douglass
"The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro"
01 Jul 2014
by Frederick Douglass The great abolitionist Frederick Douglass “spoke truth to Power” most unforgettably on July 5, 1852, in Rochester, New York. “There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices more shocking and bloody than are the people of the United States, at this very hour.
by BAR poet-in-residence Raymond Nat Turner
Skin-game
01 Jul 2014
by BAR Poet-in-Residence Raymond Nat Turner No-win game, leading bassackwards to “Thom-Ass Clarence...Temples of Afrocentric Professors” and “Pinocchio politicians.”
Rev. Reynard N. Blake Jr
MSNBC 2016
01 Jul 2014
by Reverend Reynard N. Blake, Jr. What happens when political seasons change on the plantation?
Bill Quigley
Sixty Five Million Left Out of July 4 Celebration
02 Jul 2014
by Bill Quigley America’s incarcerated, homeless, poor – including four million subsisting on less than $2 a day – undocumented migrants and dispossessed aboriginal peoples are excluded from the “patriotic” festivities.
by BAR contributor Danny Haiphong
What is July 4th to US imperialism? What is it to the Oppressed?
02 Jul 2014
by Danny Haiphong What does America’s national celebration mean to those under the heel of “Manifest Destiny,” at home and abroad? “For the victims of US imperialism, the 4th of July is indeed a ‘hollow mockery’ and ‘mere bombast, fraud, and deception’ as Frederick Douglass so eloquently put…
by BAR editor and senior columnist Margaret Kimberley
Freedom Rider: Democratic Blame for SCOTUS Rulings
02 Jul 2014
by BAR editor and senior columnist Margaret Kimberley With corporations firmly in control of the electoral process, and the federal judiciary packed with right-wing judges, all three branches of government are in hostile hands. “Americans are fighting for their lives against corporate greed, white…
by BAR executive editor Glen Ford
The Superpower and the Caliphate
02 Jul 2014
by BAR executive editor Glen Ford Don’t believe the hype that the CIA is behind ISIS’s declaration of an Islamic State in Syria and Iraq. “The Caliphate threatens, not only its immediate adversaries, but the potentates of the Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait and the Mother of All Monarchist Corruption…
by BAR managing editor Bruce A. Dixon
Why Elections Still Matter, Except When They Don't
02 Jul 2014
by BAR managing editor Bruce A. Dixon Martin Luther King once talked about how a black person in the south was unable to vote, while one in the north had nothing to vote for. 50 years later, the south as become the north too. The two capitalist parties have gamed and subverted…
by BAR executive editor Glen Ford
Study Shows Blacks Will NEVER Gain Wealth Parity With Whites Under the Current System
19 May 2010
by BAR executive editor Glen Ford Contrary to the Big Lie that holds that Blacks have been making general progress in closing various economic “gaps” with whites since the Sixties, African American households have been getting poorer for the past 23 years. “The meter of progress is running…
by BAR executive editor Glen Ford
White House Plans Sham Jobs Forum
18 Nov 2009
by BAR executive editor Glen Ford In laying down the ground rules for next month's White House Forum on jobs, the Obama Administration makes it plain that no serious job-creation proposals will be entertained. The employment crisis is to be treated as a waiting game. Civil rights and labor leaders…