In the famous June 1772 Somerset case (Somerset v Lewis of 1772, 98 ER 499), the British court ruled that chattel slavery violated English common law. The application of Somerset to the thirteen British colonies would have meant an end to the slave machine that fed the coffers of the Yankee mercantile elite and fueled the wealth of New England (see below) while it created …
The southern ideology, the KKK, and white supremacy moved West…
The North may have won the military conflict, but the oligarchic ideology was not stamped out. Richardson argues compellingly that instead it transformed and migrated. Former Confederates founded the Ku Klux Klan, engaging in guerrilla attacks to resist Northern rule. Others moved westward, where Westerners had created a racial hierarchy in the midst of expansion. White Americans seized land from …
The Black Radical Tradition Can Help Us Imagine a More Just World + What Everyone Should Know About Reconstruction 150 Years After the 15th Amendment’s Ratification
Excerpt, June 28, 2020 – Truthout https://truthout.org/articles/the-black-radical-tradition-can-help-us-imagine-a-more-just-world/ (see below that for article on history and links regarding the Reconstruction) The educational theory of the enslaved cannot be detached from the origins of the Black radical tradition, one that was forged in resistance, providing the empirical basis for freedom struggle. As Cedric Robinson suggests, the Black radical tradition was birthed from the …
Damon Young Tells His Story in “What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Blacker”
Author of What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Blacker Damon Young. Photo by Sarah Huny Young I think that we should all know by now that trying to do or alter our behavior in a way to appease Whites is useless. BY ZENOBIA JEFFRIES WARFIELD, MAY 31, 2019 Damon Young’s is the voice many Black people probably hear in their heads. The one that …
First ever temperatures over 100 F in Arctic, occurring 80 years early for what is projected if current emissions trends continue
What’s perhaps even more impressive is that this relative warmth has persisted since December, with average temperatures in western Siberia 10 degrees Fahrenheit above normal — doubling the previous departure from average in 2016. The average heat across Russia from January to May is so remarkable that it matches what’s projected to be normal by the year 2100 if current …
Official slavery lasted for 250 years in the US. The value of unpaid wages for just the 89 years after independence to be nearly $20 trillion using a 3% interest rate. Currently there is a $13 trillion wealth gap between blacks and whites = 12% of white wealth.
By Anna Szymanski, Reuters.June 20, 2020 | EDUCATE! New York – Around the time the United States formally abolished slavery in 1865, African Americans owned 0.5% of the United States’ wealth. Today they own under 3%, even though around 13% of the population is defined by the U.S. census as “black or African American.” This isn’t an accident of history – it’s a result …
Lost Manuscript of Eyewitness Account of Tulsa Race Massacre Now at Museum
By Allison Keyes, Smithsonian Magazine.June 19, 2020 | EDUCATE! Note: With President Trump holding a campaign rally in Tulsa, OK on June 20, 2020, we thought it would be good to republish this article on the Tulsa Massacre, often referred to as the Tulsa Race Riot. It was a white rampage in the successful black community of Greenwood, also known as Black Wall …
The $700 billion bank bailout elicited a voter backlash: we don’t want to bailout to well-off equity holders
We are entering a recession – but what did we learn from the last one? March 20, 2020, in The Conversation, Ken-Hou Lin, Associate Professor of Sociology, University of Texas at Austin and Megan Neely, Postdoctoral Researcher, Stanford University As the coronavirus continues to spread around the world, it is abundantly clear that the global economy is entering a recession – the first we’ve …
A Moral Agenda Based on Fundamental Rights, advanced by the Poor People’s Campaign
Over the past few years, the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival has connected with communities across this nation to learn from the struggles being waged. We have met with tens of thousands of people, witnessing the strength of their moral courage in trying times. We have gathered testimonies from hundreds of poor people and we have …
Frederick Douglass Railed Against Economic Inequality: On Land Reform, Resources, and Socialism
BY FREDERICK DOUGLASS The great abolitionist and former slave Frederick Douglass died 125 years ago. Today, Jacobin publishes never-before-transcribed articles from Frederick Douglass’ Paper denouncing capitalism and economic inequality. Our new print issue, “Political Revolution,” is out now. Get a discounted subscription today. Everyone knows that Frederick Douglass, who died 125 years ago today, was a fierce opponent of slavery and a powerful champion of freedom, justice, …