Article by Ed Pilkington with video by Tom Silverstone — Over two years, Pilkington has interviewed eight people imprisoned since the 1970s black liberation struggle that rocked the US. As they near 50 years inside, will America’s black radicals ever be freed?

Vantage Point Vignettes Comments and Commentary by Dr. Ron Daniels — How many Black men and women must be murdered under Florida’s infamous “stand your ground law” before Black people…

A new book argues that King’s suspicion of American capitalism and his passion for economic justice did not represent a turn in his last tumultuous years. They were there all…

By Vincent Joos, The Conversation — At least seven people are dead and Haitian Prime Minister Jack Guy Lafontant has resignedafter weeks of violent protests in Haiti that were sparked by a sudden increase of fuel prices. Demonstrations began on July 6, when the Haitian government said that gas prices would go up 38 percent to US$4.60 per gallon because the International Monetary Fund, a major Haitian creditor, recommended ending petroleum subsidies. The average income in…

Mandela was not just “a brilliant political tactician and legal mind, but also an exquisite writer,” says reviewer Goff. These letters give us a man of high ideals whose “fight…

By Stephen Kantrowitz, Boston Review — White supremacy is a language of unease. It does not describe racial domination so much as worry about it. White supremacy connotes many grim and terrifying things, including inequality, exclusion, injustice, and state and vigilante violence. Like whiteness itself, white supremacy arose from the world of Atlantic slavery but survived its demise. Yet while the structures are old, the term “white supremacy” is not.…

In Baltimore and other segregated cities, the life-expectancy gap between African Americans and whites is as much as 20 years. One young woman’s struggle shows why. By Olga Khazan, The Atlantic — One morning this past September, Kiarra Boulware boarded the 26 bus to Baltimore’s Bon Secours Hospital, where she would seek help for the most urgent problem in her life: the 200-some excess pounds she carried on her 5-foot-2-inch…
Focus of Premium: The Power of Frederick Douglass. Special Guests: State Senator James Sanders (Queens, NY), Dr. Greg Carr (Chair., Department of Afro-American Studies, Howard University, Washington, D.C.) and Assemblyman Charles Barron (East New York, NY).

The DNC’s bid to energize African American turnout this fall began with these words from Chairman Tom Perez in Atlanta: “I am sorry.” By Russell Berman, The Atlantic — ATLANTA—Swanky fund-raisers don’t often begin with an apology to the well-heeled donors who shelled out thousands of dollars to sip wine, eat steak, and listen to pep-rally speeches. But as he looked out over a predominantly black crowd gathered at the Georgia…

The New York activist’s upset primary victory has fueled hopes – and boosted funding – for progressives in Democratic races across the US By Adam Gabbatt, The Guardian — One day in mid-June, Cori Bush, a nurse and activist mounting a progressive primary challenge against a well-established Democratic congressman in Missouri, took a look at her fundraising totals. She had raised $9 during the previous 24 hours. On the evening of…

The ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment marked a turning point in U.S. history. Yet 150 years later, its promises remain unfulfilled. By Robert Greene, Dissent — The ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment on July 9, 1868 was a turning point in United States history. Arriving at the height of Reconstruction, the amendment marked the first time the U.S. Constitution explicitly addressed the question of who qualified as an American citizen.…

By Robert L. Fischer, The Conversation — On July 12, President Trump’s Council of Economic Advisers concluded that America’s long-running war on poverty “is largely over and a success.” I am a researcher who has studied poverty for nearly 20 years in Cleveland, a city with one of the country’s highest rates of poverty. While the council’s conclusion makes for a dramatic headline, it simply does not align with the reality of poverty in the U.S.…