Politics
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#JailBedDrop: Los Angeles’ Fight Against a Multibillion-Dollar Jail
This Christmas Eve, JusticeLA is “dropping” beds outside shopping centers across Los Angeles County—from Inglewood to Calabasas—to encourage a public conversation about the fight for abolition. We are demanding an end to mass incarceration in the U.S. and our county’s investment in policing and jails. JusticeLA was formed on Sept. 26, 2017; we are a…
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Our Elected Officials Must Give Children 2nd Chances
Just last week, 71-year-old Henry Montgomery found out he would spend yet another Christmas behind bars in Louisiana. He has spent more than 50 Christmases there, but he thought this year might be different. The parole board was set to hear his case for release, but on the day of the hearing, the board delayed…
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The Charter School Movement Is Complicit With Segregation
Charter schools didn’t create segregation, but the charter school movement isn’t helping to end it, either. When Martin Luther King Jr. said, “We must never adjust ourselves to racial segregation,” he wasn’t suggesting that black kids need white kids and white teachers in the classroom with them to learn. King was acutely aware that segregation…
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Fear of the State, Fear of My Home: To Be Black and Queer in America
“I was called a faggot before I was ever called a nigger.” I’ve heard this statement from LGBTQ people hundreds of times across social media platforms, drawing various reactions from both hetero and homosexual communities alike. For many of us, this statement, albeit true, often lacks the full context and explanation of how both offensive…
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Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba Declines to Share Mississippi Civil Rights Museum Stage With White Supremacist in Chief
Chokwe Antar Lumumba, Jackson, Miss.’s revolutionary mayor, will not be sharing the stage with President Donald Trump at the grand opening of the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum this Saturday, the Clarion Ledger reports. “I believe that Trump’s presence is a distraction. His policies don’t reflect his statements that this is a movement that will bring…
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#DerickWiley: Grand Jury Returns ‘True Bill’ Against Officer in Lyndo Jones Shooting
A Texas grand jury has returned a true bill indictment against now former Mesquite, Texas, Police Officer Derick Wiley in the Nov. 8 shooting of 31-year-old Lyndo Jones (pdf), The Root has exclusively learned from Jones’ attorney, S. Lee Merritt. The Dallas County District Attorney’s Office is expected to make the announcement Wednesday afternoon, at…
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Long Live the Chairman: On This Day in 1969, the FBI and Chicago Police Assassinated Black Panther Fred Hampton
Dec. 4, 1969—48 years ago today—police officers from the Cook County, Ill., State Attorney’s Office, in collusion with the FBI, assassinated Fred Hampton, chairman of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party, and Black Panther Party leader Mark Clark. Hampton and Clark were 21 and 22 years old, respectively. At approximately 4:45 a.m., 14…