The Story Starts Here (with Ndjuoh MehChu and Vanessa M. Holden)

Family separation was a key issue used to advance the movement to end slavery in the United States, and the family policing system builds upon slavery’s foundation, attacking the humanity of families seen as undesirable. In the first episode of Season 1, we explore the notion of abolition then and now, and the idea of abolition as a project of not just removal, but also creation of the society we all deserve. 

About Our Guests: 

Professor Ndjuoh MehChu teaches torts, civil rights law, critical race theory, and remedies at Seton Hall Law School. His scholarship explores ways to shore up protections for marginalized groups in the carceral state. Ndjuoh was formerly a legal fellow at the Southern Poverty Law Center where he helped incarcerated people press their claims to improve their conditions of confinement and worked on issues involving educational equity in K-12 schools. 

Dr. Vanessa M. Holden is an Associate Professor of History and African American and Africana Studies at the University of Kentucky where she is the Director of the Central Kentucky Slavery Initiative. Dr. Holden is the author of “Surviving Southampton: African American Women and Resistance in Nat Turner’s Community. 

Episode Notes: 

• This episode mentions articles by Ndjuoh MehChu including “Policing as Assault” and “Help Me to Find My Children: A Thirteenth Amendment Challenge to Family Separation.”
• Episode Transcript: upendmovement.org/episode1-1
• Continue learning: upendmovement.org/syllabus
• Support the work of upEND: upendmovement.org/donate 

Credits: 

Hosts: Josie Pickens & Jaison Oliver

Producer: Sydnie Mares

Editor: Imani Crosby