
I begin this tribute to Norman Girvan, a friend and a comrade, with the words of a great Jamaican literary figure, Dennis Scott. It’s his poem “Hatch: Or, The Revolution Viewed as an Exploding Library”
I begin this tribute to Norman Girvan, a friend and a comrade, with the words of a great Jamaican literary figure, Dennis Scott. It’s his poem “Hatch: Or, The Revolution Viewed as an Exploding Library”
Too many laws in the U.S defy basic human rights principles of justice by resorting to overly punitive sentences for nonviolent and low-level crimes, according to a report published Tuesday by Human Rights Watch.
Late last month, US attorney general Eric Holder announced [3] that the Obama administration would release new guidelines for clemency petitions, opening up the possibility that thousands of people serving long prison sentences for non-violent drug offenses might be released. The guidelines require [4] that applicants have served at least 10 years on a charge that would be prosecuted differently today – a standard which mostly applies to drug charges – and that they have a good prison record, a limited prior arrest record and no ties to organized crime. The author of this op-ed has served 14 years and nine months of her sentence and hopes that she might qualify for clemency.
(TriceEdneyWire.com) — The civil rights community’s get-out-the-vote machine is slowly reawakening. But given what’s at stake in this year’s mid-term elections, activists say, GOTV (Get Out The Vote) campaigners need to shake off their malaise—ASAP.
By Colin Campbell, The Baltimore Sun
A red-faced state trooper hardly acknowledged Harry Belafonte before a 1967 performance at theUniversity of Baltimore during heat of the civil rights movement.
More than any other group, black job applicants are being turned away by U.S. companies under the implicit assumption that they are using illegal drugs, according to a new study published by the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER).
Just a few months ago, Florida Republican leaders were backing a legal challenge to oppose a medical marijuana ballot initiative in the state, saying it would lead to the “Coloradoification” of the state.
In March, we learned that under the new NYPD police commissioner, Bill Bratton, the number of stop-and-frisks police were making dramatically decreased.
Veteran actor Danny Glover, who spoke Sunday at The University of Chicago during the school’s Annual Public Lecture Series, said the Academy Award-winning movie “12 Years a Slave,” deeply affected him.
In this Budget Debate 2014-2015, Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller gave a marathon address to Parliament. Fidel Castro in his heyday was famous for giving speeches that went on ad infinitum.