Winding down a 4 day memorial to Manning Marable at Riverside Church in Harlem, Angela Davis gave a presentation on Stop & Frisk, the School to Prison pipeline, and racism in the criminal justice system.

Khalil Gibran Muhammad, Executive Director of the Schomburg Library in Harlem, spoke on the issue of Stop and Frisk from an historical perspective at a Panel at Cuny's Black Studies Progam.

Johanna Fernandez describes the new organization, "Liberation Summer" outside of Manhattan Criminal Court while at a press conference in support of Joseph "Jazz" Hayden. The mission of Liberation Summer is to organize, mobilize, and resist criminalization, mass incarceration, structural racism, and xenophobia. We will unleash our collective creativity and imagine a world without prisons, without borders, without oppression.

What a pleasure to hear with clarity and sharpness of analysis the thoughts of this brother. He is in a cage, separated from direct contact with the world yet, manages to see with such clarity. - Jazz Hayden

SOURCE - RT

Bob Gangi spoke at the annual Black, Puerto Rican, and Asian caucus in Albany New York.

Our Enemies in Blue, was a panel discussion and community conversation discussing the abusive behavior of the NYPD.  The discussion was held at the Harlem School of the Arts (HSA) on February 22, 2012.

International Socialist Organization - The racist practices of the NYPD are nothing new. But in recent weeks and months, the NYPD's brutality has been exposed to the world: from a New York Times editorial by a young black man who is one of the hundreds of thousands stopped and frisked each year because of the color of his skin, to the videos of the beating and pepper-spraying of peaceful Occupy Wall Street demonstrators, and recent revelations that the NYPD showed its officers the Islamophobic "Third Jihad" film featuring Comissioner Ray Kelly.   And more and more people are standing up, from the outburst of anger after the NYPD's beating of Jateik Reed and murder of Ramarley Graham, a growing movement against stop and frisk, marches against NYPD brutality, and in defense of Jazz Hayden, who is standing up to retaliation from the NYPD for his tireless efforts in documenting and exposing their harrassment of Black and Brown people in Harlem. Sponsored by the International Socialist Organization (Uptown and Bronx Branches) Socialistworker.org 

Click for Video of the Panel Discussion

Click to read more ...

On February 20, activists from throughout the city and the New York State rallied in Harlem against the Prison Industrial Complex.  They marched in support of The Occupy Wall Street Prisoner Solidarity Subcommittee and Occupy Oakland's call to action for solidarity with the Pelican Bay hunger strike, with brothers and sisters who are dispossessed by the criminal INJUSTICE system, and with political prisoners everywhere. Occupy4Prisoners

Protestors made a stop at Wells Fargo bank in Harlem to demonstrate.  Wells Fargo financial arm of the private prison industry.

Activist Jamel Mims speaks on movement building.

Activist Hennington "It's the Money!"

Video From the Conference - December 1, 2011

Robert Gangi, long time Director of the Correctional Association, has formed a new organization called PROP, Police Reform Organizing Project, which is seeking radical reform of police practice-- specifically practice such as Stop/Frisk and its racialized practice in poor communities of color.

King Downing is a lawyer, public speaker, community organizer, activist, and a member of the Campaign to end the New Jim Crow (CENJC), which co-sponsored the conference. "Racial Profiling is a deliberate policy". "Stop and frisk is a diversion" to distract us from corporate crime.

Brother Shepp, of the New Black Panther Party, a community organizer and activist asked the panel at the PROP Conference held at Riverside Church on December 1, 2011 addressed the question of reform v. radical change in police community relations. Shepp called for community control. It was a novel idea to some of the panelist.

For more information on PROP visit www.policereformorganizingproject.org

Click to read more ...

Mika'il Deveaux takes a look at reform v. Abolition of the criminal injustice system. Mika'il is presently working on his Phd at Hunter College.

For more information on his organization visit www.citizensinc.org

Patti Katz shared her experience at the Formerly Incarcerated People's Movement.

Mr. Atkinson, from North Carolina, spoke passionately about organizing the movement and the need to get to know one another as we build.

For more information on the Formerly Incarcerated and Convicted People's Movement got to

unprison.org

Jazz Hayden, at the Campaign to End the Death Penalty, describes the path from past to present of the New Jim Crow and mass incarceration. Racism in the criminal justice system is the new jim crow.

By: Nicholas Been, Edited by Lily Hughes
The Campaign to End the Death Penalty was honored to have the participation of several members of the Kids Against the Death Penalty at our recent convention in Austin, Texas. They are a group of mostly high school age kids who have taken a stand against the injustices of the death penalty. Some of the KADP have family members on death row, and all are courageous young men and women who speak out to their peers about this issue. KADP member Nicholas Been addressed our convention with the following words.

Click to read more ...

The Drug Policy Alliance held its International conference at the Westin Hotel in Los Angeles, California on 11/01/2011 - 11/04/2011. It was attended by a diverse group of people from all racial and ethnic groups from around the country and around the world. The one constant fact that emerged out of the experts that attended the event was that blacks and other poor people of color were the most impacted by America's prohibition ...

Kate Rhee, Longtime New York activist around juvenile justice issues, spoke on stop frisk and marijuana arrest. The numbers she laid out on marijuana arrest were startling.

Alan Bean and Melanie Wilmoth

Just a few nights ago, activists, former prisoners, and concerned citizens gathered at Riverside Church in New York to discuss mass incarceration and the criminal justice system. These individuals are launching a campaign built around the ideas expressed by Michelle Alexander in her book “The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness.” Especially concerned with the effect our broken justice system has on people of color, these organizers are advocating for a complete transformation of our system of mass incarceration. MW

I met Jazz Hayden at a conference in Chicago a while back and have been following his work ever since.  Pockets of resistance to the New Jim Crow are popping up across the country and Jazz is at the forefront of this movement.  AGB

Read Full Article at Friends of Justice

Michelle Alexander, Author of The New Jim Crow, discusses the New Jim Crow during the panel discussion.

Michelle Alexander also sits down and talks with Joseph "Jazz" Hayden of allthingsharlem.com about the importance of movement building.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Listen Here, to Jazz Hayden and Lee Wengraf speak about the Attica Rebellion which took place 40 years ago. This podcast was recorded at the Socialism 2011 Conference, in Chicago on July 1, 2011, and was recorded for Wearemany.org.

May 21, 2011 - Michelle Alexander along with VOCAL-NY, Mission and Social Justice Ministry of the Riverside Church, The Campaign to End the New Jim Crow and Drug Policy Alliance joined together to hold a press conference outside of Riverside Church in Harlem, NY.

The press conference was calling for parolee voting rights and an end to illegal marijuana arrests that have targeted people of color.

Senior Minister of Riverside Church, Rev. Stephen H. Phelps strongly endorsed the Campaign To End The New Jim Crow.

Press conference calling for parolee voting rights and an end to illegal marijuana arrests that have targeted people of color.

For more information visit:
www.newjimcrow.org
www.allthingsharlem.com/new-jim-crow
www.drugpolicy.org/
www.vocal-ny.org

May 21, 2011 - "I think about all those things I did throughout the years that I'm not proud of today," stated Major Neil Franklin, a retired Police Officer, and Executive Director of Law Enforcement Against Drug Prohibition (LEAP). Franklin got a little choked up when reflecting on the negative results fighting the Drug War had on communities of color.

Franklin was a panelist at an event at the historic riverside church in Harlem, put on by the Riverside Church Prison Ministry and The Campaign to End The New Jim Crow. The event featured keynote speaker, Michelle Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow, Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness.

For more information visit:
www.newjimcrow.org
www.allthingsharlem.com/new-jim-crow
www.leap.cc

View the entire panel discussion below. Filmed by Joe Friendly, checkout his youtube channel for other interesting videos.

May 21, 2011 was supposed to be the end of the world, well, it was the end of the world as many of us knew it when they heard Michelle Alexander dissect the criminal "injustice" system in America and its progeny---The New Jim Crow and mass incarceration in the age of Colorblindness.
The Campaign to End the New Jim Crow.  Video parts 1 - 4 seen here.

Click to read more ...

- Watch Author Douglas A. Blackmon on CSPAN Book TV

Douglas Blackmon talked about his book Slavery By Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II, published by Doubleday. He talked about the laws enacted between the Civil War and World War II that limited the rights of blacks. During this time, blacks who committed minor crimes were forced to do hard labor for commercial interests. That day was the 100th anniversary of the arrest of Green Cottenham, who was the central character of his book. Mr. Cottenham was sentenced to hard labor in conditions that would eventually kill him. Mr. Blackmon talked about the history of racism in America and read several passages of his book. He responded to questions from members of the audience. - CSPAN