Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison
By: Michel Foucault This book examines changes in punishment due to shifting attitudes in society. It is grouped into four sections: torture, punishment, discipline, and prison. The author argues that the abolition of torture and the emergence of a modern prison system have merely shifted the focus of punishment from the prisoner’s body to his soul. |
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13th
Directed by: Ava DuVernay Combining archival footage with testimony from activists and scholars, director Ava DuVernay's examination of the U.S. prison system looks at how the country's history of racial inequality drives the high rate of incarceration in America. |
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A Lesson Before Dying (novel)
By: Ernest J. Gaines In this novel set in the late 1940s, a young black named Jefferson is a reluctant party in a shoot-out in a liquor store in which the three other men involved are all killed, including the white store owner. Jefferson, the only survivor, is accused of murder. At the trial, Jefferson’s lawyer argues that Jefferson lacks the intelligence to plan a murder. His lawyer argues: "Why, I would just as soon put a hog in the electric chair as this." Jefferson’s family enlists Grant Wiggins, a Black teacher, to impart wisdom and pride in Jefferson before his death, to prove the lawyer wrong. |
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Amicus Brief in Support of Deray McKesson
By: Howard University School of Law – The Movement Lawyering Clinic This brief challenges a court ruling that limits the freedom of speech of Black protesters. |
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Amicus Brief in Support of Marcus Mitchell for 2016 Dakota Pipeline Demonstration
By: Howard University School of Law – The Movement Lawyering Clinic The brief highlights the long differential treatment of protestors of color as compared to white protestors, and the disproportionate and often militarized force used against them by law enforcement. |
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Cop Cities in a Militarized World
By: Azadeh Shahshahani The United States has long supported the repression of Latin American land defenders. The tactics it exported are coming to the Atlanta forest. |
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Say Her Name (Hell You Talmbout)
By: Janelle Monae featuring various artists Please join us and the African American Policy Forum in this rally cry as we #SayHerName on International Daughters Day honoring the Black women and girls who lost their lives to police violence. (Note: "talmbout" means "talking about" in African American Vernacular English) |
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Colin Kapernick's Protest
Colin Kaepernick & the Fight for Black Lives
By: Morningside Center for Teaching Social Responsibility In 2016, then San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick tried to get the country to pay attention to police brutality and racial injustice by refusing to stand during the playing of the national anthem at the start of football games. In this way, Kaepernick, with the help of his teammate Eric Reid, started a league-wide, player-led peaceful protest. |
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Kaepernick’s Stand: Patriotism, Protest, and Professional Sports
By: Steve Martin and George F. McHendry, Jr. This essay examines the public controversy that has followed Colin Kaepernick’s decision to sit or kneel during the national anthem, which is played before National Football League games. We argue that Kaepernick seeks to transcend his protest and focus on systemic racism and violence against people of color. Meanwhile, external defenders of Kaepernick seek to differentiate his protest from charges that he is unpatriotic. These efforts argue that Kaepernick has the right to protest, but avoid engagement with the content of the protest. Finally, we consider implications for rhetorical entanglements with Kaepernick’s protest to argue that most responses, ultimately, serve to reinforce the status quo. |
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The Effects of Social Activism on Business Strategy and Revenue as Observed in NFL and Nike Consumer Trends
By Alycia Courey In September 2016, former quarterback of the 49ers Colin Kaepernick decided to kneel for the National Anthem to protest the police brutality of African Americans. As Kaepernick continued to kneel for the National Anthem before every subsequent game, the controversy grew and the National Football League (NFL) lost viewership. Kaepernick became a free agent in 2017 and was not picked up by another NFL team. As the NFL regained viewership, Nike decided to sponsor him and his cause in their 2018 “Just Do It” ad campaign and experienced an increase in product sales and stock price as a result. These different experiences that the NFL and Nike have had by being associated with Kaepernick shows a trend in and the significance of consumer behavior and social activism in marketing decisions. This paper examines the prevalence of these behaviors and their influence on the NFL and Nike. |
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Political Prisoners & Uprisings
Blood in My Eye
By: George Jackson A book of political philosophy written by the co-founder of the Black Guerrilla Family. Jackson finished writing the book days before he was killed at San Quentin State Prison. |
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Soledad Brother:
The Prison Letters of George Jackson By: George Jackson At the age of 18, George Jackson was accused of stealing $70 from a gas station. Though there was evidence of his innocence, his court-appointed lawyer convinced Jackson to plead guilty in exchange for a light sentence. He did, and received a sentence of one year to life. Jackson spent 10 years in Soledad Prison, 7 1/2 of them in solitary confinement. After his murder by a prison guard, Palestinian writer Samih al-Qasim’s “Enemy of the Sun” was found in Jackson's prison cell. |
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Attica Prison Riot (Documentary)
Directed by: Cinder Firestone One thousand inmates at the Attica State Prison took control of the prison yard, seized 35 hostages, and issued a list of grievances after peaceful attempts at prison reform had failed. |
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Attica Prison Uprising 101: A Short Primer
By: Mariame Kaba, Project NIA This publication about the Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 is not intended to be a curriculum guide, but a brief primer for educators and organizers. It includes a timeline of events (with primary sources); testimonies from Attica prisoners; poetry by Attica prisoners; sample activities for youth; and other suggested resources. |
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Black Herstory: "The Trial of the Decade"
By: Jamia Wilson The 1974 case of Joan Little who escaped from jail and was charged with using deadly force against the white jailer who attempted to rape her. |
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Jericho Movement
The United States government is imprisoning dozens of political prisoners and prisoners of war. The Jericho Movement is raising up their voices and working for their amnesty and freedom. |
The Pendleton 2
On the morning of February 1, 1985, Lincoln “Lokmar” Love was doomed to the same fate as George Floyd, Tyre Nichols, and so many other Black men in the US. As he lay handcuffed and shackled, Pendleton Correctional Facility guards beat the prisoner beyond recognition as terrified bystanders watched from their cells. But Lokmar’s story ended differently, when two fellow prisoners sacrificed their freedom to save him from his assailants — a KKK-affiliated guard gang known as the Sons of Light. |
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Rev. Joy Powell
Reverend Joy Powell is a community activist who advocates against police violence. She was falsely accused of a crime and is wrongfully incarcerated in New York. |
A Life in the Balance—The Case of Mumia Abu-Jamal
By: Amnesty International Mumia Abu-Jamal was sentenced to death for the murder of a police officer in 1982 after a trial that failed to meet international standards. In this report Amnesty International conducts a full analysis of the trial of Mumia Abu-Jamal including the background and atmosphere prevailing in the city of Philadelphia in 1982 and the possible political influences that may have prevented him from receiving an impartial and fair hearing. |
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The Political Prisoner: From Mumia Abu-Jamal to Palestine
By: Groundings Podcast A podcast interview with Mumia Abu-Jamal, a former Black Panther and journalist who has served 30 years on death row for a crime he did not commit; and Johanna Fernandez who has has spent 20 years working on the campaign to free Mumia and all political prisoners. |
This Black August, We Will Not Forget Our Freedom Fighters
By: Movement for Black Lives A profile of several political prisoners, including writer and radio journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal; Kamau Sadiki, a member of the Black Panther Party who was targeted by COINTELPRO; Imam Jamil Al Amin, a member of SNCC and the Black Panther Party; Ed Poindexter of the National Committee to Combat Fascism; former Black Panther Party member Veronza Bowers Jr.; anti-police brutality activist Reverend Joy Powell; and Josh Williams, the only remaining political prisoner from the Ferguson uprising. |
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Banning the Caged Bird: Prison Censorship Across America
By: Howard University School of Law – The Movement Lawyering Clinic This report is written in response to Michigan prisons banning the book “Black Skin, White Masks” written by Frantz Fanon. The Human and Civil Rights Clinic found books calling for racial equity and justice were banned from prisons throughout the U.S. |
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In the Belly Volume 3: The Imprisoned Black Radical Tradition
By: Stephen Wilson, Editor-in-Chief Conversations about how Black radicalism is created and mobilized in prison. |
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U.S. - Israel Police Partnership
Inside GILEE, the U.S.-Israel Law Enforcement Training Program Seeking to Redefine Terrorism
By: Anna Simonton The history of Israel’s training program for U.S. law enforcement in the state of Georgia. |
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Deadly Exchange
By: Jewish Voice for Peace Website listing all campaigns across the U.S. to end Israeli training of U.S. police forces. The website is run by U.S.-based, pro-Palestinian organization Jewish Voice for Peace. |
Frequently Asked Questions about the Deadly Exchange
By: Jewish Voice for Peace This website provides information on Zionist groups that sponsor the Israel-U.S. police exchange, how often the exchanges occur, and why the exchange must end. |
Memphis Police Chief Trained with Israel Security Forces
By: Alice Speri The death of 29-year old Tyre Nichols at the hands of Memphis police officers last month once again ignited outrage over the violent, militarized nature of U.S. law enforcement and placed scrutiny on police departments’ bloated budgets. Among the objections to policing that are being revived are criticisms of a controversial series of trainings and exchange programs for U.S. police in Israel. |
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From Atlanta to Palestine: Liberation By Any Means Necessary
By: Alex Ackerman The “Stop Cop City” movement opposes the construction of a $90 million police training facility in Atlanta, due to the combination of environmental harm it stands to inflict and the heightened threat of police violence against the surrounding neighborhoods, whose residents are primarily Black. The struggles against Cop City and for the liberation of Palestine are mutually imbricated, as they both demonstrate state-sanctioned, settler-colonial violence by imperialist powers. Furthermore, the collaboration between the US and the Zionist state is the result of the impetus to further entrench their domination over colonized and working class people. |
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Demilitarize! From Durham2Palestine
The IDF and the Israel Police have a long history of violence and harm against Palestinian people and Jews of Color. They persist in using tactics of extrajudicial killing, excessive force, racial profiling, and repression of social justice movements. Such tactics have been condemned by international human rights organizations for violating the human rights of Palestinians. These tactics further militarize U.S. police forces that train in Israel, and this training helps the police terrorize Black and Brown communities here in the US. |
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Durham council votes to prohibit international police exchanges
By: Sarah Kreuger Many police departments around the country participate in an exchange program with Israeli Police. Some consider them to be highly skilled in counter-terrorism, but others find their tactics questionable. |
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Race & Incarceration
Race and Wrongful Convictions in the U.S.
By: National Registry of Exonerations A report on the role of race in the conviction of innocent people. |
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The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness
By: Michelle Alexander This book argues that mass incarceration is, metaphorically, the New Jim Crow and that all those who care about social justice should fully commit themselves to dismantling this new racial caste system. |
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The Exonerated Five
The Exonerated Five were five Black and Latinx teenagers who were falsely accused of sexual assaulting a white woman. They were imprisoned following interrogations in which they were coerced into making false accusations. They were later freed due to DNA evidence proving their innocence. They were previously known as The Central Park Five, named after the New York Park where the assault occurred.
Full Coerced Confession of Korey Wise
Recorded interrogation and coerced confession from Korey Wise, the youngest member of the Exonerated Five. |
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When They See Us (Official Trailer) Directed by: Ava DuVernay
Five teens from Harlem become trapped in a nightmare whey they're falsely accused of a brutal attack in Central Park. Based on the true story. |
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The Central Park Five: “We Were Just Baby Boys”
By: Aisha Harris The Exonerated Five discuss their lives with the young actors portraying them in the Netflix series “When They See Us.” |
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Yusef Salaam
By: The Innocence Project A profile of Yusef Salaam’s case. As a teenager, he and four additional Black and Latino teenagers were falsely accused of a crime and coerced into confessing. In 2002, their convictions were overturned. |
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Re-awakened to the American Dream: Yusef Salaam on his path to New York city council
By: Suzette Hackney Yusef Salaam, wrongly convicted in 1989 “Central Park Five” case, has won his Democratic primary for City Council in New York. |
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Prison Abolition
Are Prisons Obsolete?
By: Angela Davis Davis eloquently points out that mass incarceration has had little or no effect on crime, how disproportionate numbers of the poor and minorities end up in prison, and the obscene profits the system generates. |
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Our Communities, Our Solutions
By: Critical Resistance An organizer’s toolkit for developing campaigns to abolish policing |
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Becoming Abolitionists: Police, Protests, and the Pursuit of Freedom
By: Derecka Purnell The author draws from her experiences as a lawyer, writer, and organizer to discuss abolishing the police and creating solutions to address the root causes of violence in society. |
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We Do This ‘Til We Free Us: Abolitionist Organizing and Transforming Justice
By: Mariame Kaba What if social transformation and liberation isn’t about waiting for someone else to come along and save us? What if ordinary people have the power to collectively free ourselves? These questions are addressed In this collection of essays and interviews. |
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