With the 60th anniversary of the Watts rebellion upon us, many still point to the arrests of Marquette, Rena and Ronald Frye as the embers that set Watts ablaze in 1965. On Aug. 11, the police pulled over Marquette’s car supposedly responding to reports of drunk...
International solidarity in the face of racism The acquittal of racist murderer George Zimmerman sparked outrage and demonstrations not only in the United States, but all around the world—including in Palestine. Many Palestinians circulated pictures of themselves...
On September 11, 1987, unidentified assailants ambushed and assassinated the Rasta musician and revolutionary Peter Tosh in Kingston, Jamaica. The very poverty and violence Tosh dedicated his life to speaking out against ultimately claimed his life. Armed with a...
“Trapped in a vicious cycle of ignorance, poverty, disease, sickness and death, and there seems no way out. There seems to be no way of escape. And because there seems to be no hope, no way out, no means of escape, we turn to wine, we turn to whiskey, heroin,...
The following is adapted from Puryear’s book “Shackled and Chained: Mass Incarceration in Capitalist America” (Liberation Books, 2013) In August 1971, a lawyer for big tobacco in Richmond, Va., sent a memorandum to an acquaintance at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce with...
Racists defeated in 1958 Battle of Hayes Pond In the 1950s, the movement for civil rights had gained serious momentum, shaking the system of Jim Crow white supremacy to its core and provoking a vicious response from its supporters. The most notorious group that fought...
What is the legacy of this historic civil rights victory? Nearly sixty years ago, on May 17, 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court issued the landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision, declaring segregation in public schools to be unconstitutional, after an intense...
Book review: "Hammer and Hoe" Photo: Univ. of North Carolina Press “Hammer and Hoe,” a 1990 book written by historian Robin D.G. Kelley, chronicles the development of a communist movement in Alabama during the Great Depression. It highlights the struggles communists...
This year marks the 50th anniversary of the historic and militant struggle of the Second Ward residents of Dorchester County, Maryland in 1963. The residents of the Second Ward launched a community-based effort against racist politicians and business owners in their...