Black Agenda Radio - 06.08.20

Welcome to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and analysis from a Black Left perspective. I’m Margaret Kimberley, along with my co-host Glen Ford. Coming up: Among the demands on protesters lips and signs is Community Control of the Police. And, there’s nothing new about debates over the use of violence to get justice. A century and a half ago, some folks preached that the struggle against slavery should be non-violent.

But first – in some cities, protesters have zeroed in on corporations that have gotten too cozy with the police. We spoke with Dr. Brittany Friedman, a professor of sociology specializing in Race and Rights at Rutgers University.

Dr. Johnny Williams teaches at Trinity College, in Harford, Connecticut. He blames a self-serving Black leadership for selling out the poor.

The demand for community control of the police drew a thousand activists to Chicago, last fall. The conference was organized by the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, chaired by veteran activist Frank Chapman. He says community control of police is a demand whose time has come.

It took thousands of atrocities, mass killings and other outrages by slaveholders before some white abolitionists finally recognized the necessity of violence to overthrow the system. Professor Jesse Olavsky is an historian at Duke University, and a scholar on resistance to slavery. She wrote a recent article about “Women, Vigilance Committees, and the Rise of Militant Abolitionism.